[IAmTheWaterbug]

I get this question all the time when I arrive to collect a swarm, "How many bees are in there?"

And I usually just say, "Oh, a few thousand," but without actually knowing.

So how many bees would y'all all guess are in the following swarms?

 

[Fivej]

Oh, like a "how many jellybeans are in the jar" contest. I will offer a guess based upon my jellybean jar success, but only if you have counted the bees and if there is a prize. In other words: no idea. The only way I know how to estimate is based on 300 bees in a mite test. J

 

[fieldsofnaturalhoney]

I usually answer that question, by first estimating how many pounds of bees are in the swarm/weight of the container. Then multiple that by 2,500 for an estimate

 

[elmer_fud]

How does the size compare to a package? A 3 lb package is about 10k bees so this will give you a starting poing.

 

[kilocharlie]

A full standard 9-11/16ths inch brood box with 10 frames packed with bees should be about 30,000 bees, so 3,000 to a frame, 1,500 to a side, but this is often an over-estimate because the are more spread out than when the whole box is packed tight.

So put the swarm in a box of frames and fudge your estimate on the light side, numerically. I will often give a SWAG at about 1,000 bees per frame side if the population is low, even less if the frame is not entirely covered.

 

[2Sox]

Doing a Google search, I found there are 3-4k bees per pound. Basketball size is maybe 5-6 pounds. Go from there.