Here are some figures based on measurements of oxygen consumption (mls
of oxygen per gram of tissue per hour) in the literature:
Individual flying bees : 50 - 130
50-100 workers in cages (at 20 - 35 centigrade) : 3 - 9
1,800 to 16,000 workers in swarms (at 5 to 23 centigrade) : 0.3 - 4.3
So the published reports are quite variable depending on group size,
outside temperature, activity level (and there are more extreme
measurements in the literature). But just to work through a
calculation, assume a 3 lb package at 70 fahrenheit uses 1 ml per gram
per hour (or 1.35 mg of sugar per gram per hour). Converting this to a
more practical figure with some rounding off, it would be about a tenth
of the weight of the swarm in sugar consumption per day.
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