It takes 55,000 air miles for bees to gather one pound of honey. A bee
     flies at 15 miles per hour. It therefore takes 3,666 hours to gather
     the pound of honey. Bees typically work on nectar procurement for 6
     hours. It therefore takes 611 bee days to make 1 pound of honey. It is
     therefore true that it takes 611 bees to make a pound of honey in one
     day assuming an infinite supply of nectar. To fill a super with 25
     pounds of honey 15,277 bees are needed. The average honey crop in the
     United States is about 50 pounds which requires a colony of 30,555
     bees. Since there are about as many house bees as field bees, it
     follows that a population of 60,000 bees, which is about normal, will
     make an average honey crop. Is it not beeautiful?
                        Apiculturally yours,
                                Ray Nabors
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: honey bee statistics (fwd)
Author:  Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> at internet-ext
Date:    12/2/96 8:59 AM
 
 
I suspect any estimate is suspect, but is there one?
 
Tom Sanford
 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 13:56:38 -0800
From: Nancy C. Hinkle, Ph.D. <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: honey bee statistics
 
Dr. Sanford,
 
Greetings from California!
 
I'm trying to track down some statistics on the industrious honey bee.
Can you tell me how many bee days are required to produce a pound of
honey?  That is, how many honey bees working how many days can produce a
pound of honey?  (Or, one bee, working how many days, could produce a
pound of honey?)
 
Tell the UF folks "hi" for me.
 
Nancy Hinkle