As the warm weather finally arrived, so did the uptick of honey bees. WellTech Pest Solutions’ wildlife team responded to a call in east Clearwater for a significant bee swarm. Upon arrival, thermal scanning revealed a massive hive, prompting the need for backup to handle this formidable task.
After hours of intense work, the team successfully removed approximately 65 pounds of hive material. For educational purposes, they strained off a portion of the honey, yielding close to 3 gallons of raw honey. It’s important to note that this represents only a fraction of the hive’s total contents; much of the honey remained within the hive structure.
To estimate the colony’s size, the team considered that an average worker bee (all of which are female) produces about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. Based on the 3 gallons of honey collected, a simplified calculation suggests the colony may have contained around 27,648 honey-producing worker bees. However, this is just an estimate. It’s crucial to remember that this calculation only accounts for honey production and doesn’t represent the entire bee population.
Angelo, Danny, and Jose, Photo by James Scheffel
A hive contains far more than just honey-producing workers. There are also drones, the queen, nurse bees, and other bees that don’t produce honey. The 65lbs of hive material also adds a significant volume of hive and non honey materials. Therefore, the actual total population of this impressive hive was likely significantly larger than the number calculated from the honey yield alone.
This Clearwater hive was truly a “Buzz Winner,” highlighting the remarkable productivity of these busy bees!