100 mg0.0035 oz
A worker honeybee weighs about 0.1 g (100 mg, or 0.0035 oz), so it takes roughly 10,000 of them to make a kilogram and about 4,500 to make a pound. Queens and drones are about twice as heavy, at around 200 mg each. A foraging worker coming home with nectar can weigh about 40% more than her empty weight.
| Bumblebee queen, heaviestBumblebee queens range from 298 to 1,160 mg | 1.16 g0.041 oz |
|---|---|
| Honeybee queen or droneAbout 200 mg | 200 mg0.0071 oz |
| Worker honeybee with nectarAverage nectar load is 40% of body mass | 140 mg0.0049 oz |
| Worker honeybeeAbout 100 mg | 100 mg0.0035 oz |
| Small bumblebee workerBumblebee workers range from 50 to 400 mg | 50 mg0.0018 oz |
A 2019 review in Environmental Entomology by Angela Gradish and colleagues gives the round figures: adult honeybee queens, workers and drones weigh about 200, 100 and 200 mg respectively. The workers, all female, are the bees you see on flowers, and they are the smallest members of the colony.
A honeybee colony typically holds up to tens of thousands of workers and a few thousand drones. At 100 mg each, 10,000 workers weigh 1 kg (2.2 lb), so a colony of 30,000 workers comes to about 3 kg (6.6 lb) of bees, by our maths.
Foragers carry nectar inside their bodies, in a honey stomach called the crop, and pollen in baskets on their hind legs. In a 2003 study in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Erica Feuerbacher and colleagues tested loaded foragers: nectar foragers carried an average of 40% of their body mass, and pollen foragers 27%.
Carrying the load cost surprisingly little. Loaded foragers raised their metabolic rate by only about 6%, and pollen loads averaging 18% of body mass did not change how fast or how far the bees beat their wings.
All that work adds up to very little honey per bee. According to the National Honey Board, a single worker makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life.
Bumblebees vary far more in size. The same 2019 review lists bumblebee queens at 298 to 1,160 mg, workers at 50 to 400 mg and males at 90 to 317 mg. The heaviest bumblebee queens weigh about as much as 11 or 12 honeybee workers.
Their colonies are much smaller, though. Even the largest bumblebee colonies typically hold no more than 350 to 450 workers, compared with tens of thousands in a honeybee hive.
A worker honeybee weighs about 0.1 g (100 mg). A honeybee queen or drone weighs about 0.2 g, and bumblebees range from 0.05 g for a small worker to over 1 g for a large queen.
About 4,500 worker honeybees, at roughly 100 mg each. A kilogram is about 10,000 bees.
A honeybee queen weighs about 200 mg, roughly twice as much as a worker. Bumblebee queens are heavier, from about 300 mg to over 1,100 mg.
In one study, loaded nectar foragers carried on average 40% of their own body mass, about 40 mg for a 100 mg bee. Pollen foragers carried about 27%.
About 1/12 of a teaspoon in her whole life, according to the National Honey Board.
Last checked October 4, 2026.
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