" we find thirty-five out of one hundred hives are empty each spring"
I kept bee before mites and know a few others who did the same.  My typical winter losses before mites was zero out of ten.  The others I know personally that had bees back then tell similar stories.  In general our problem was never too many winter deaths.  Our problem was by late May every box we had was full of bees so any swarms after that we just let go as there was no place to put them.  I remember one spring just before the local AFB epidemic hit that I must have passed on a dozen easy to capture swarms because I was out of boxes.

Now, how good or bad can a person do today?  I have had winters where my losses were zero.  And, as high as 70%.  Normal for me is 15% but when I am fighting mite bombs close by I can not beat them.  A friend who runs something like 150 hives lost zero in the winter a year ago.  I know one guy who says he routinely winters 100% on ten hives a couple of counties away from where I live and in area with far fewer hobby bee keepers.


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