James writes:
> You quoted Phillips, who apparently summarized the nationwide average as 10%.

What I said was:

> I shall remind the reader of a comment made by E. F. Phillips one hundred years ago: "The beekeepers of the United States lose at least one-tenth of their colonies of bees every winter. This is a minimum loss, which is frequently increased to one-half and sometimes more in certain sections." I did NOT say the national average was 10%. And again, that may reflect prewinter culling, which was commonly done.

What I read is 50% or more in some sections, at least 10%. Almost exactly the same as last winter for the US. We had low averages in Idaho and Hawaii (around 13%) and the worst were Indiana and Illinois, both over 60%. Most of the hardest hit states were in the vicinity of the Great Lakes (which includes Ontario).

It's worth mentioning that both Phillips and Rhea were highly critical of beekeepers and blamed the losses on them. G. H. Cale, on the other hand, acknowledged in the 1940s that on average, about one third of his hives did not contain decent colonies, either being dying, dead, or building up.

PLB

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