The 10-15 lbs. of foragers is consistent with my one set of observations this year on my largest hive. It is currently 8 10-frame mediums high, of which about 3 are now capped honey. Please see the attached snapshot of the Broodminder app from my iPhone, showing the daily fluctuation of outside temperature (above) and the counter-cyclical total hive weight (below), which I believe represents the daily departure of the foragers.

I have had a Broodminder scale under this hive since the early spring, and have added a medium every time the top medium got about two-thirds full. The base, cypress hive stand, bottom board, inner cover and outer cover weigh about 40 lbs. Each empty, new medium with 10 frames of foundation weighs about 12 lbs. In mid-June, this hive had 9 mediums and weighed 360 lbs., or about 140 lbs. of woodenware and 220 lbs of bees, brood, nectar, honey, etc. At that point, I removed and extracted 2 mediums of fully capped honey, and that got the weight down to about 260 lbs. 

This is a sample size of only one hive, so I would would be interested in reading any further information on total hive weights under various seasons and circumstances.

John

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