I watched a video on YouTube about a bee expert relocating a swarm of bees. After he'd skilfully coaxed them into a special cardboard box, he was asked how many he thought there were, and he said, by the weight of the box, about 20,000.
This reminded me of an old story about a man who had to transport a large number of canaries on perches in the back of a lorry. But the combined weight of the canaries was more than the lorry's axles could safely bear.
To get round this, he got another man to travel in the back with the canaries and stir them up with a pole at frequent intervals, on the principle that as long as they were flying around they wouldn't put any weight on the lorry's axles.
Would this scheme work?
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No it wouldn't.
When the birds are perched their weight is supported by the perches and the force transmitted to whatever the perches are fixed to, and ultimately to the axles of the lorry.
When the birds are flying they are supported by the air and the air transmits the weight to the floor of the lorry and the floor transmits it to the axles as before.
What difference would it make if we took the top off the lorry?