# Any idea how many brood a bar of comb will hold?



## JYawn (Dec 6, 2011)

Just wondering... anyone ever researched how many brood your average top bar comb will hold?

I'm waiting on my first emerging bees to come out this weekend and just got to thinking about it.


----------



## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

what is the average top bar? There is no standard, so it would be hard to get an average.


----------



## JYawn (Dec 6, 2011)

shannonswyatt said:


> what is the average top bar? There is no standard, so it would be hard to get an average.


Well I would think an average bar is probably around 18-20 inches long and comb around 8-10 inches deep. That's just me guessing... that's about what mine is.


----------



## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

I think that is similar to others, but it isn't like a Lang where a medium or deep are going to be the same size. I think that it all depends on the size of your comb in square inches (or some other increment) and how much of the comb is brood. There is probably some pollen or honey stores mixed in with the brood. I did a quick search and it seems like 920 cells per decimeter is average for something between 4.6 and 4.7 cell sizes. So if you can figure the size of your comb in decimeters (10 sq centimeters) you can figure out how many from a bar.


----------



## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

I just did a quick calculation based on your size and I think that comes out to 6000, but your comb size is going to be a bit smaller than the hive size. 4000 or 5000 thousand brood (potential) per comb. But this isn't like a Lang were if you have drawn out comb it should be pretty dog gone close to the same per frame. I've read someplace that a deep will have 7000 cells on it.


----------



## JYawn (Dec 6, 2011)

shannonswyatt said:


> I just did a quick calculation based on your size and I think that comes out to 6000, but your comb size is going to be a bit smaller than the hive size. 4000 or 5000 thousand brood (potential) per comb. But this isn't like a Lang were if you have drawn out comb it should be pretty dog gone close to the same per frame. I've read someplace that a deep will have 7000 cells on it.


Awesome, not only did you research but you did the calculations too! lol. That's close to what I was just purely guessing at. Thanks


----------



## Tom Brueggen (Aug 10, 2011)

As said above, it depends on each bar. But you should be able to calculate the number of cells per bar, and then estimate from that what percentage is brood comb. 
What makes it interesting with TBH is that the bees build the cells to whatever side they want. However they have a preferential size for worker brood vs drone brood vs honey storage. I've noticed mine pull bigger diameter cells in the honey area, noticeably larger than the average brood comb. 
If only we could get the girls to sound off for role call so we new just how many there were. The. Again we'd be there all day to hear tens of thousands of "present!". No one would ever get any work done...


----------

