Many people who are interested in beekeeping wonder how many bees live in one hive. It is impossible to determine this quantity by eye. Insects are small in size and constantly moving. To get accurate values, it is important to study information about the hierarchy of bees. Then you can use special calculation methods.
What is a bee colony?
It's no secret that bees live in families. They can be grown in a Dadan frame or in a standard design.Moreover, each bee colony is structured in a certain way. It includes:
- one queen - responsible for the reproduction of insects in a swarm;
- worker bees - responsible for obtaining food and feeding the queen and young individuals;
- drones - are engaged in fertilization of the uterus.
The work of each individual in the family is subordinate to the functions of the entire structure. At the same time, the tasks of insects include not only collecting honey and pollen, but also protection from enemies, maintaining suitable temperature and humidity parameters in the hive, and reproduction.
In addition to smell, each bee colony is characterized by the following characteristics:
- performance at the honey collection stage;
- amount of wax released;
- ability to reproduce;
- aggressive behavior;
- resistance to diseases.
How many bees can there be in it?
Only one bee colony lives in 1 hive. The only exception is the breeding season, since at this time a new queen appears and the formation of another swarm begins. Once the process is complete, it leaves the hive.
To see the whole family, you should wait until evening. At this time, the entire colony flies into the hive. However, even at this time it is difficult to say the exact number of bees in the hive. In addition, the number of insects depends on the seasonal factor.
At the height of the honey harvest, there are on average 80 thousand individuals in one bee colony. Some hives contain 100-110 thousand insects. Such families are considered very strong and appear only when optimal conditions are created. To do this, it is important to ensure a temperature of +35 degrees and low humidity.
Determination methods
There are a number of methods that make it possible to determine the number of bees in a hive. This helps to monitor the development of the bee colony and predict the amount of honey.In this case, beekeepers usually use 2 main methods that help to obtain the most accurate results.
To count the number of insects, you can use frames installed in the hive as a basis. The standard design includes 6600 cells. The length of one adult insect is approximately 1.5 centimeters, which corresponds to the size of 3 cells. This means that 1100 bees can be located on one side of the frame, and 2200 on two sides. This number must be multiplied by the number of frames.
You can also use another method. To do this you need to do the following:
- weigh the hive with insects;
- subtract the mass of the hive itself with frames;
- divide the resulting value by the average weight of one insect - it may differ depending on the breed.
What is it for?
Calculating the number of bees in a hive may be due to simple curiosity. However, in fact, this question also has practical significance. The number of bees allows you to determine a number of important parameters:
- uterine strength;
- the strength of the family;
- conditions for bee breeding;
- feed quality;
- weather.
If the actual number of bees is less than the estimated number, this means that changes need to be made to the apiary operation - for example, analyzing the integrity of the hive structure or assessing the humidity level.
What can affect the quantity
The number of insects depends on a number of factors. These include the following:
- The presence of weakened uteruses. Such individuals lead to the appearance of weak offspring. This negatively affects the performance of the entire family and causes the hive to lag in development.
- Problems of maintaining strong families at a certain level. With constant changes in numbers, insects are not able to reproduce strong offspring themselves.
- Lack of nectar, bee bread and water. Lack of bribes has a bad effect on the uterus. Its brood becomes weak, which negatively affects the number of bees in the hive.
- Air temperature at brood emergence. Offspring should appear in warm weather. Only in this case is a high-quality influx of queens and worker bees possible.
- A large number of queens. The quality of queen bees affects the vigor of the brood.
- Presence of open brood. This is very important for the full feeding of queens by worker bees. All this helps to get strong individuals in the family.
The number of bees in a hive depends on many factors. This is influenced by the quality and strength of the uterus, the amount of food, and the weather. It is important to periodically count the number of insects in the hive using special methods. This will help to identify problems in time and find ways to solve them.
