Weighing Colonies
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Instead of estimating the food stores, they can be calculated.
Instead of estimating the food stores, they can be calculated. This does not require a hive scale under every colony, but a spring balance with a lever arm. Because the hive is only tipped up, the weight shown is half the total weight.
For this, you form a target weight. The example calculation from an advisory body: empty weight of the hive 23 kilograms, bees and pollen 2 kilograms, winter feed 20 kilograms, giving 45 kilograms total and thus 22.5 kilograms on the scale. If it shows less, exactly that difference is missing in feed. About 15 kilograms for single-box colonies and 18 to 22 kilograms for two-box colonies are given as average figures for winter, though the requirement is explicitly stated to vary by region.
Anyone wanting to calculate via the combs uses the area rule: one square decimeter capped on both sides corresponds to about 300 grams. The figures for the content of a whole comb vary even within the same advisory center; for Zander, 2 to 3 kilograms are given. More important than the exact figure, in any case, is where the feed sits: full food combs belong at the bee cluster, otherwise a colony starves in the cold on full outer combs.