>>>>I know a beekeeper hear in Slovenia, who is claiming that he is the
one who carried the largest number of bees on man's body. He put 13kg
of bees (app. 130,000 bees) on his body. >>>>>>
I have no wish to start an argument but I must take issue over the figures
given above.  I know nothing about bee beards except what I have seen in
magazines but I cannot imagine one would use hungry bees.  I think they
would need to be happy and contented, in other words with full honey sacs.
Quoting from the latest issue of the Hive and the Honey Bee (two words,
note) the average weight of an empty forager bee is 82mg.  Younger bees are
slightly heavier.  A bee can, but rarely does, load 70mg in  its honey sac.
Assuming a more likely load of 50mg this would give the bees an average
weight of 132mg. This would give the the number of bees in 13Kg around
98500, a far cry from 130000.+If we accept the figure given the average
weight would be 100mg, honey sacs nearly empty.
Reverting to pounds and the current thread on swarm size, completely empty
bees (an unlikely situation) come around 5000 t0 5500 to the pound.  Bees
with a fair load in their sacs (40mg) weigh in at 3700 to the pound.  It is
accepted that swarming bees leave with a full load and might well weigh in
at less than that number.
I have weighed swarms (primes with the old queen) for the last eleven years
and only once has the weight exceeded 10 pounds.  Most weighed around six to
eight pounds.  I was once present when two stocks swarmed simultaneously and
settled as one in a nearby branch.  That would have been a record breaker
but while I was getting my kit together they quietly separated, one queen in
each as I found later.
Incidentally I think there was a remark in the bee list some time back that
a swarm consisted largely of foragers.  This is not so.  Younger wax makers
and nurse bees are needed as well.  I understand that older bees can revert
back to earlier duties if the need arises but a swarm needs high speed wax
producers and brood food makers and this can only come from bees of the
right age. If the swarm did consist mainly of foragers (working life two to
three weeks) they would all be dead before the first brood appeared three to
four weeks later.                                                      Sid P.
_________________________________________________________________
Sid Pullinger                    Email :  [log in to unmask]
36, Grange Rd                Compuserve:  [log in to unmask]
Alresford
Hants SO24 9HF
England