>>I ask how many bees you figure is in a pound of bees today in the 
feral/swarms gathered? What is averge number of bees in a given pound?

This is an excellent question and I don't have a precise answer.  The typical removal of a healthy colony takes a few hours.  All the while, the bees are in earnest tanking up on honey.  So a significant portion of the bees' weight is honey, lots of honey.

The largest colony I came across this year felt like 12-20 lbs of bees in the two boxes (w/o any comb).  [Sorry about the wide range.  I should have weighed them.]  It was collected about 3.5 weeks ago.  I placed them in 2 deeps with a combo of partly drawn frames and foundation.  They densely filled both deeps.

In my experience, the feral colony will get as large as the nest cavity will permit.  If a cavity is large enough, a super large colony will result given a robust queen.  If the cavity is on a small side, multiple swarms will be cast.

Waldemar

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