With respect, I have not made any attack on you or your veracity-I merely
observed that your original post which gave data for two years, without any
indication as to how these were selected, was not  a reliable way to
indicate a change in yield.

Right. I just want it plain that I do not attempt to stack the cards in favor of a point of view; the view should correspond to the facts, not the other way around. 

If you study the numbers you realize that they divide the gross honey production by the number of hives. This is very misleading for a number of reasons. Many of the colonies are not run for honey production, but used to produce bees for sale or solely for pollination. Some areas are not good honey producing areas, so a beekeeper may compensate by running more hives, lowering the average.

In a given operation, what matters most is not the average per colony production but the take-home pay. Many operators move their hives frequently to increase honey production, others move to get pollination fees. Both of these styles incur very large expenses, compared to the stay at home beekeeper, who may be able to keep overhead costs way down and get by with a smaller number of hives.

PLB

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