an important point lost on most people who discuss the "decline of pollinators" is that the number of colonies in the US decline from 6 million to 2.5 million with no negative effect. In fact, the effects have been largely positive. The chief driver for the decline was low honey prices, which are driven up by a smaller supply. Low honey prices encourage beekeepers to seek other markets, such as pollination. Lower colony numbers has driven the price of pollination up as well. The notion that our food supply depends on two million plus hives is wrong. The demand for bees in almonds drives staggeringly high fees, but fees for other crops are much lower (based on demand). Many of these other crops (apples, etc) are pollinated by hometown beekeepers and native pollinators.

> Average decadal yields of 10 crops for six complete decades (1945 through 2005) and the most recent partial decade (2005 through 2010 or 2011, depending upon data availability) are presented in Table 2. The results indicate that the yield in the most recent decade is the highest in all considered crops except for apple. For the crops that are less dependent on honey bee pollination (corn, wheat, peanut, soybean, tomato), yield has increased in almost every decade from 1945 through 2010. 

Sinnathamby, S., Assefa, Y., Granger, A. M., Tabor, L. K., & Douglas-Mankin, K. R. (2013). Pollinator Decline: US Agro-Socio-Economic Impacts and Responses. Journal of Natural and Environmental Sciences, 4(1), 1-13.

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