Heres some food for thought. A deep frame has about 7000 cells so there would be about 3500 bees if packed tight like carpet over a deep frame. Now they should be covering part of the frame as well so lets call it 3600 bees a frame and at 3600 bees to a lb, thats a lb of bees a deep frame. A three pound package should then crowd three frames. That would make my six frame nucs six pound packages, hmm!
Now if a queen lays 1600 eggs a day, or 33,600 in a 21 day cycle from egg to hatching bee, you would only need five deep frames if brood was wall to wall, hmm! 2000 eggs a day, (42,000 in 21 days) would take up only 6 frames, hmm!
Now if bees live 6 weeks (42 days) in summer you would end up with 67,200 bees for 1600 egg layer and 84,000 for a 2k layer. Thats 9.6 frames and 12 frames of bees, hmm! Diss stuff does not add up, I have hives that have at least 3 deeps of frames covered with bees in summer time. I also believe though that my best laying queens probably would cover 8-9 frames of brood if it was all wall to wall. So I do believe good laying queens lay up to 3000 eggs a day in peak of season.
How about you?