a Jerry Bromenshenk snip...
In the year of 44% losses, that the press was all over the 44% colony loss, which was not true.
 
I did a collation of the BIP data.  I've a spreadsheet  buried somewhere, the 44% applied only to hobby/small scale beekeepers and it was 44% of them who lost colonies.  That was about 30,000 respondents, who lost one or more colonies.   By far, the majority of BIP respondents were hobby/small scale beekeepers.

my comment...
That last comment is interesting since I do not believe most of their customer are anything but larger beekeepers. I have never decided how this entire 'loss' thing is defined. I will add that the 3 (fairly well known) commercial beekeepers who headed up a 'ask the experts' panel at the most recent Texas Beekeepers Association Meeting informed the crowd that their 'replacement' number was about 50%... I would guess the number is higher for pollinators than those who only go after honey.

Gene in Central Texas...  

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