a couple of Pete B snips followed by > my comments... 
I am afraid you missed the point. One million hives vanishing between 1980-85 and production doubling had nothing to do with varroa. Varroa caused big crashes about ten years later in the mid 90s (citation below)

>No Pete I am afraid you missed the larger point which is hobby type beekeeper quit entering the data set <typically older and who do not rely on the production of honey for income and only collect one crop from one location. At least in some economic data sets their average production is documented (but still a wild ass guess) and zeros do have a way of dragging down an average.   During the same period of drought thru much of the mid section of the country and in the south. In commercial field no one entered the profession and firms were bought up by existing firms.  Assets were consolidated (as happens whenever an economic bubble burst)and the best areas are exploited and the marginal ones forgotten. As in many things (the rule of 'The Right Stuff') no one variable created the calamity.   

These numbers reflect one thing: a change in the method of collecting data. Garbage in=garbage out. 

>well a trite response (and totally unrelated to the topic at hand) is something I do expect from some folks... intellectually it is a bit like screaming... SQUIRREL!  As is... you seem to wish to nit pick this data... that is relying on the same folks data on how many hives were/are in the US (then or now) but toss the data with which you disagree..

>No one really knows EXACTLY how many total hives were in the US... either in 1945 or today.  I suspect it make good rational sense that the numbers in 1945 were exaggerated due to their capacity for allowing people draft deferments and are likely understated today <primarily since there are, at least according to the older TAIS employee, a lot of small scale beekeepers that no one really know about and who fall outside the radar of government statistics..

>Numbers at the world level of total hives is even more of a wild ass guess so any PRESUMPTION on how many hives there are world wide is without question subject to an even larger error term. Analysis of there being more or less (now or then) is imho 'whatever you wish it to be' but totally unverifiable as to whether you OPINION is correct or not.  

>As is such number are EDUCATED GUESSES but not so surprising some folks prefer opinion and gossip or whatever they wish to be true.. 

>As to what I learned from my former college (graduate school) peers... all these sorts of numbers are undergoing a constant revision to make them more reliable.. They were (at the time I was interested in such detail) a good place to define economic coefficients and build partial (simple) enterprise budgets and larger economic models....


Gene in Central Texas....    

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