WEIGHT OF BEES 
887 
bees. A considerable difference does ap¬ 
pear, but probably that arises in part from 
the abundance or scarcity of honey on any 
particular day when the colony was visited. 
My aim was to secure reliable results, as 
nearly as possible representing the average 
amount of honey carried by bees. 
The following is the result of weighing 
several hundred each, of returning and out¬ 
going bees. The smallest number of bees 
necessary to carry one pound of honey, as 
shown by my results, is 10,154; or, in other 
words, one bee can carry the 1-10,154 (one 
ten thousand one hundred and fifty-fourth) 
part of a pound of honey; and the largest 
number, as shown by the results, required 
to carry a pound is 45,642; and the average 
of all the sets weighed is 20,167. Perhaps, 
then, it is approximately correct to say that 
the. average load of a bee is 1-20,000 (one- 
twenty-thousandth) of a pound; or, in other 
words, if a colony has 20,000 bees in it, and 
each one makes one trip a day, they will add 
the pound to their stores. Of course, not 
all the bees in a colony leave the hive, the 
nurses remaining at home, hence necessitat¬ 
ing more trips of those which do “go 
a-field. ’ ’ 
I also repeated my observations of two 
years ago on the weight of bees, and found 
that my numbers ran from 3,680 to 5,495 in 
a pound, and the average about 4,800, the 
same as in my former test. I likewise se¬ 
cured the following on the weight of drones: 
Of a dozen or more weighed, the largest 
would require 1,808 to make a pound and 
the smallest 2,122 or an average of about 
2,000 drones in a pound, over against near¬ 
ly 5,000 workers. B. P. Koons. 
Agricultural College, Storrs, Ct., Sept. 3, 
1895. 
Both Professors Gillette and Lazenby, 
the former of the Colorado Experiment Sta¬ 
tion and the latter of the Ohio State Uni¬ 
versity, conducted a series of experiments 
which closely approximated the figures of 
Professor Koons, and it may be assumed 
they are correct. 
In round numbers there are 5000 bees to 
a pound. Single swarms have issued that 
have contained as high as 10 pounds of 
bees. The swarm itself would, therefore, 
contain approximately 50,000 bees, most of 
them old or fielders. The number of bees 
left in the hive probably would not exceed 
4 to 5 pounds of young bees, making a total- 
population of about 75,000. Some of our 
best beekeepers, however, are now taking 
the view that colonies can be built up to 
100,000 individuals and that such colon:'es 
will be very profitable; but generally speak¬ 
ing a good colony would not go much above 
75,000 to 80,000 bees. Of this number there 
would be between 4 and 5 pounds of bees 
that would be too young to go to the field. 
If so, about a third of the entire force 
would be young bees, and the other two- 
thirds would be fielders. This proportion 
would prevail only just before the main 
honey flow. In the middle of spring, when 
breeding is at its height, half or possibly 
two-thirds of the bees would be young or 
nurse bees. During winter in the northern 
States, there would be no young, and all of 
them would be able to fly to the fields if 
the weather conditions would permit. 
Again, in a colony population of 75,000 
individuals there might be, in the height of 
the honey flow, 40,000 to 50,000 bees in the 
air or in the field at one time. Sometimes, 
during the middle hours of the day, when 
there is a great rush of incoming nectar, a 
colony will seem to be almost deserted; and 
then toward night it will soon be over¬ 
crowded. 
Professor Koons says that while 10.000 
bees may carry a pound of nectar, 20,000 
would be more nearly the average. Much 
will depend on the strength of the honey 
flow, and on how much time the bees take on 
each trip. 
While the average colony in the height of 
the honey flow will not bring in more than 
4 to 5 pounds of nectar in a day, it may 
bring in as much as 20 pounds. Some cases 
are recorded where as high as 66 pounds 
have been gathered; but these cases are 
comparatively rare. Assuming that a bee 
can carry half its own weight in nectar, 
and did that all day, a colony of 40,000 field 
bees might make a gain of 20 pounds to the 
hive, each bee making five trips. If, how¬ 
ever, they brought in only one-half that 
amount per trip, then they would have to 
make at least ten trips per day. If nectar 
was very abundant those same bees might 
make twice that number of trips, or a total 
of 40 pounds of nectar. It can hardly be 
assumed that all bees would be equally in¬ 
dustrious. When bees are robbing, filling 
up on fully ripened honey, they might make 
thirty or forty trips a day. A bee can fill 
up on honey in the space of a minute or 
two. It could then hike back to its hive, un¬ 
load and return. It might thus pile up 
possibly one hundred trips. No one knows 
because no count has been made. 
