a Mr LaGrange snip...
"Though, our biggest challenge is getting responses to our questionnaires, since that’s our largest source of data."

my comments...
A long term challenge to doing surveys is getting a good response.  A response rate of 10% is often thought to be sufficient.  Without question the more responses you can obtain the more accurate is your survey (if and only if the questions are developed in a proper way).

as to the subject matter.... I personally would not look at the data and be convinced that the numbers are really that meaningful.  Basically if you casually look at the graph over the last 30 years (ie after the arrival of varroa) the trend line is pretty flat.  Long term I have often though that the largest problems facing beekeepers is economics and finance (but given my own academic background is directly related to economics and finance I know well enough I am not unbiased in this matter).  My bias showing outright....'many of the current problems in beekeeping could be address with simply more money'.  Secondly beekeepers as a whole are the worst finance folks in the agricultural community.... there are reasons for this but none the less this lack of funding inhibits expansion and the sale of bees and bee keeping firms between individuals.

spring is here and I am grafting queens....      

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