JOSEPH F. ROSSMAN" <[log in to unmask]>
said:

> 3500-4500 bees per lb. Depends on how much honey flow
> may be on at the time.

Weighing out a pound of bees, and then counting them is
made very difficult by the bees' annoying habit of constantly
buzzing their wings.  This constant buzzing offsets the
apparent weight by a considerable amount, and may create
a situation where the entire mass of bees takes flight solely
due to the efforts of the outermost bees.

After applying equations involving aerodynamic lift, the surface
area of a typical "three-pound" package of bees when clustered,
and accounting for the queen and drones, who are sure to be
of no help at all, we gave up on the math and chilled the little
suckers in the fridge for a few minutes.

THEN we could weight and count with ease!

No surprise... Mr. Rossman is, of course, correct.