> James Fisher :”The basic truth to remember is that the BIP data is a self-reported survey ...

Actually, BeeInformed has made an effort to compare their results with other ostensibly unskewed results. They have compared their data with APHIS results and have found pretty close agreement. Also, they compare with NASS results

> The National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) recently reported the results of its second honey bee colony loss survey. The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) also recently published preliminary loss results covering the same period. Despite the differences in methodology and sample sizes, these two surveys yielded comparable results. 

> This is reassuring as it suggests past BIP surveys are representative of national losses despite the non-random nature of the BIP respondent pool. Both of these surveys were created to track honey bee colony losses in the US, but they differ in survey design (participants’ recruitment and questions asked), delivery, data presentation, and the methodology by which loss rates are calculated.

BIP National Loss Survey Comparison with NASS results
https://beeinformed.org/2017/08/22/bip-national-loss-survey-comparison-with-nass-results/

I have been guilty in the past of casting a harsh light on their methodology, I suppose others have as well. I now believe they have done a good job getting a representative sampling of the US beekeeping situation. The real problem is not data collection but interpretation. As I said before, simple correlation will not get you far. It will point to potential causes, but hypotheses need to be generated and tested. 

Do migratory beekeepers do better because they manage their bees better or because they keep moving them to better forage, instead of leaving the hives to sit stationary for 6-8 months with nothing to do? Do commercial beekeepers report lower losses because they are constantly splitting and repopulating their hives or is it because they treat more often? 

Just staring at the data won't give you any answers, someone has to put a creative mind to it and generate the bigger picture. As the famous Dr. E said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

PLB

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