>Half the hives dead in the U.S.?

And who will provide the bees to restock those hives?  Those beekeepers who
year after year figure out how to avoid such losses.

I've asked around the Calif package producers.  Typical winter losses are
in the 5-15% range every year (myself included).  When losses were higher,
they were invariably due to either poor late summer nutrition or inadequate
varroa management.

Due to the intense drought and lack of forage every summer in Calif, these
beekeepers do as Bob suggests, and look for areas with minor (or
harvestable) honey flows in which to place their bees, including irrigated
agricultural areas, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, or in the
nonagricultural foothills.

The most successful generally feed supplemental protein, and syrup when
indicated, although I wouldn't consider their management to be "feedlot"
operations.

My point is that there are a great number of commercial beekeepers who
don't experience the sorts of winter losses that the "average" beekeepers
do.  And manage to do so year after year.  To me, that suggests that
management practices may be a factor in colony losses.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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