Thanks to James Fischer for that great article list.  There's been a huge change in honey production in my backyard hives here in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood since I began keeping bees in 2014.  A number of my friends from Puget Sound Beekeepers' Assn who live in the city or surrounding suburban areas have reported decreases in honey output, but not as drastic as what I'm experiencing.  There are a number of factors which have likely combined to cause this effect.  For what it's worth:

In my first year (2014) I left all the honey for the bees (two deeps for brood nest and a full western super).  Both hives survived the winter and the following season I harvested one super each and left the remainder for the two hives plus one split.  

The last 2 summers the bees have had so little forage that they didn't fill the supers AT ALL until I began feeding them in August.  The biggest changes here have been two exceptionally long summer droughts -  both with almost no rain, and much higher than average temps. Additionally, there's been a building frenzy going on for years in the Seattle neighborhoods, much of which consists of small homes being replaced by apartment buildings and townhouses that build out nearly the entire lot footprint (so, no yards).  Gratuitous replacement "spot" landscaping around these dwellings have  zero value for pollinators.  The city has also been on a crusade to eradicate invasives, including Himalayan blackberry, which is (was?) our biggest late spring nectar flow in the city. The local beeks who live closer to large parks and open spaces are faring better.  

Lastly, I suspect that we have too many urban beekeepers.  There's no way to know for sure how many hives there are in the city, since not everyone is a member of the local bee club. But one of my mentors said some years ago that he knew of at least 6 beeks with hives in his immediate vicinity.

I'm not going to keep bees in the city any longer unless I can find someone who lives near more forage, and wants to host a hive. I do all I can to keep them alive thru the winter and exercise all due diligence re mite treatments, but I'm not going to keep bees if I have to feed them so much "junk food".  I believe a lot of bee health comes from the trace elements they get in their natural food, which obviously is lacking here.

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