>> In bees, the thing that ultimatly matters is honey production. 

> I beg to differ. What ultimately matters is the health of the organism. 
> ...As I have stated often enough, the total output per apiary is what 
> pays the bills, not the per colony average.

> If your colonies are healthy but say produce 80% per colony than the 
> next guy, you can keep more colonies to make up the shortfall. 

Not in my business.

Perhaps  as a hobbyist of sideliner, this is might work, but on a commercial 
basis, the profit per hive is thin 20% is huge, often the per hive profit is less
than 20% -- when there is profit.  Sometimes there is no profit  but the costs per 
hive continue regardless, and don't change much with crop size.

If one loses money on each hive, greater volume is not going to make up the 
deficiency. In fact, too many hives accompanied by low profit per hive is a 
major cause of beekeeper business failure.

That reminds me of the tale about the retailer who loses money on every 
sale, but hopes to make it up on volume.

It is difficult to generalize, but the biggest problem with beekeeping is that there 
are to many moving parts already.  Running an 25% more hives will not add 25% 
more profit, but will typically add 25% more complexity and expense, and greater 
financial risk (due to larger investment) and greater vulnerability in those 
'no crop' years.

From a commercial beekeeper perspective, the best indicator of bee health (and 
beekeeper health) is reliable and continued honey production and/or maintaining
adequate populations over time for pollination and splitting.  Other measures are 
simply academic.

This something that Bob keeps repeating, and he has made a living  primarily
(AFAIK) from the production of his bees and beekeeping.  Very few are able to 
do that.

This is why 'survivor' bees and Russian bees and other such ' healthy ' bees are
not, for the most part, doing the heavy lifting in production and pollination.

The ability to produce reliably is evidence enough of health for the professional 
beekeeper.  Any management necessary to ensure that condition is acceptable
as long as it is cost- effective and low-risk.

Honey production and ability to provide sufficient populations when 
required are the prime indicator of health for most of us, regardless of other 
factors.

So, maybe we are not in disagreement, after all.

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