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Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #20 on: January 15, 2008, 09:33:31 am »
i think its that one honeybee will produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime.

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2008, 09:49:36 am »
Hmm...did a google search, and I could only find one reference to honeybee stomach size, and that was that a medium size load for a bee was 12-15mg.  I can't verify that.  Since that is a weight, and nectar, water, and honey all weigh different, there isn't a good conversion to volume, that would be around .003 tsp. 
That is roughly 1000 bee trips for a tsp, and while that seems high, if you stop and think about how many bees are around, and how many trips they take, I don't really think that is outrageously high.  If you have 20,000 bees in the hive (assuming early spring) and half of them are foraging, that is 10,000 bees at a time that are collecting nectar, they can make quick work of 10 tsp's.

I don't know if the math is correct, but if its not, I'm sure somebody will correct it :-D

Rick
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Offline Cindi

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #22 on: January 15, 2008, 09:56:28 am »
Excellent comments, and absolutely so interesting. 

Fully cured honey is nectar reduced to 17.8% moisture content.  Now put that into your equations.  Hee, hee, have a wonderful and best of days.  Cindi
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Offline KONASDAD

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2008, 10:53:04 am »
I agree w/ those who disagree w/ me. The amount I recolected is abviously in a lifetime, not a trip, sorry. Still, I get blown away by bee numbers. For example, how much honey, in its entirety(consumed, stored, robbed) is made in one year. Oh , yea, you know its winter when bee forums discuss this stuff!
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Offline Jerrymac

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #24 on: January 15, 2008, 01:55:24 pm »
Hmm...did a google search, and I could only find one reference to honeybee stomach size, and that was that a medium size load for a bee was 12-15mg.

So let us go with 13.5 mg. =  1 bee  If my figuring is right that would be .0135 (1000/13.5 = 74.074074~) So we will round that off to 74 = 1 gram

1 gram         =       74 bees
28.35 g = 1 oz =  2097.9 bees    (2098 bees)
1 oz = 2 Tablespoons
16 tbls = 1 cup = 16,784 bees
4 cups = 1 quart = 67,136 bees
4 quarts = 1 gal. = 268,544 bees.     That's closer to what I thought it should be.

Check my math.  http://www.nutribase.com/convert.shtml
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Offline Scadsobees

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #25 on: January 15, 2008, 02:15:54 pm »
Quote
4 quarts = 1 gal. = 268,544 bees.     That's closer to what I thought it should be.

268,544 trips  That still doesn't say anything about the number of bees. :roll:  You will have to time how long a bee is sucking up syrup at a time.

If that were 5 minutes sucking and 5 minutes delivering (10 minutes roundtrip), then in 24 hours there would be 144 trips for 2000 bees.
Rick

Offline Jerrymac

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #26 on: January 15, 2008, 02:39:06 pm »
Where are you going with this? The original question was.....

Figure that no bee makes a second trip, how many bees do you think it takes to carry off one gallon of honey
or syrup?

No round trips.... No flying distance....
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Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #27 on: January 15, 2008, 02:50:45 pm »
looks like 1/4 of a million.

Offline KONASDAD

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #28 on: January 15, 2008, 03:22:32 pm »
Awesome. Now, How many times around the globe does a hive fly in a season? That should take 'till spring flow and warm weather even for us northerners!
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Offline Scadsobees

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #29 on: January 15, 2008, 03:52:33 pm »
Where are you going with this? The original question was.....

Figure that no bee makes a second trip, how many bees do you think it takes to carry off one gallon of honey
or syrup?

No round trips.... No flying distance....

Sorry, I was just going with the number of bees.
Rick

Offline Jerrymac

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #30 on: January 15, 2008, 04:24:22 pm »
If that were 5 minutes sucking and 5 minutes delivering (10 minutes roundtrip), then in 24 hours there would be 144 trips for 2000 bees.

Is that "(10 minutes roundtrip)" a flying time you added in?

Has anyone timed how long it takes for a bee to load up? How about unload? And how fast do bees fly?

So now if we can answer all those questions we can figure out how many bees actually flew the 100 yards to the feeding area and sucked down 1 gallon in one hour.  :-D
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Offline Hayesbo

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #31 on: January 15, 2008, 04:57:54 pm »
I'm not sure, but one stat is that a honeybee gathers enough nectar in her life to produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.

Stinking lazy bees. Either my bees need to produce more than that or else there will be repercusions!

Offline Cindi

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #32 on: January 15, 2008, 11:34:17 pm »
I watched last summer intently when I was doing some outside feeding of the bees, in that communal feeder.  My bees must really be pigs, because  noticed time and time again that it took the bees about 15 seconds to suck up enough syrup to fill their honey stomach and be on their way.  Pretty approximate, but pretty close at the same time.  Have a great and wonderful day.  Cindi
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Offline Scadsobees

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Re: How many bees does it take.....
« Reply #33 on: January 16, 2008, 09:28:39 am »
If that were 5 minutes sucking and 5 minutes delivering (10 minutes roundtrip), then in 24 hours there would be 144 trips for 2000 bees.

Is that "(10 minutes roundtrip)" a flying time you added in?

Has anyone timed how long it takes for a bee to load up? How about unload? And how fast do bees fly?

So now if we can answer all those questions we can figure out how many bees actually flew the 100 yards to the feeding area and sucked down 1 gallon in one hour.  :-D

No, I was assuming syrup on the hive.  Even if its only yards away, that would only be seconds.
Anyway, I was pulling those time numbers out of my a**.  Trying to make it real.

Quote
Stinking lazy bees. Either my bees need to produce more than that or else there will be repercusions!
  Yours must be because mine work their wings to the bone...

Rick
Rick

 

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