> When I conducted a survey in 1997, average annual colony mortality in Ontario was about 10%.
Honestly, I think the conversation is focused on the wrong question. The question should be: is beekeeping profitable or not.
Back in the 1950s when there were six million colonies and "hardly any losses," honey sold for 15 cents a pound. That's when the numbers really started to fall, because you couldn't support yourself at that price.
In the 1960s and 1970s Canadian beekeepers had 100% losses (they gassed the bees), restocked with packages, and made a decent profit. Later, when the border closed they had to winter over their bees.
Now, with honey selling for $2.50-$3.00 a pound wholesale, the industry seems prosperous. Look at the number of people at the conventions, which are fairly lavish affairs (held at Disneyland Hotel, not some Odd Fellows Hall in Bismark, SD).
* * *
U.S. honey production has ranged from 272 million pounds in 1952 to 150 million pounds in 1985. Overall, honey production declined between the 1950's and the 1980's, coinciding with the decline in colony numbers.
After averaging 24.9 cents a pound in 1947, the annual average price of all domestic honey stabilized at 15-19 cents from 1948 to 1970 (app. table 1). The average price trended upward from 17.4 cents per pound in 1970 to a record 63.2 cents per pound in 1981. From 1982 until 1989, the average price declined to around 50 cents per pound.
A 1988 honey industry survey by Cornell University found that honey sales provided about half and honey program payments about one-fourth of total beekeeping income during 1985-88 (Hoff and Willett, 1994).
Honey: Background for 1995 Farm Legislation. By Frederic L. Hoff, Commercial Agriculture Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Ecdnomic Report No. 708.
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