"After a presentation and conversation with a commercial pollinator, I have been musing on the differences in hive survival rates and management practices between the sideline/hobby beekeepers and the pros."

Ruth that is very interesting: several years ago I attended presentations by two of our big local mobile pollinator operators. They were quite open about their loss rates and practices, partly because they were upset by limits that year in the national foreign worker program (and were illustrating why they needed access to an increased supply of that relatively inexpensive labour).

Both operators described astonishingly high loss rates. They had to constantly buy and breed up queens and new colonies as a consequence, and were very vocal about how the bee breeding was the most labour intensive and risky part of their business, and something they would prefer to outsource. 

Both operators described 25% losses monthly during the season. They had very high overwintering loss as well. They could barely keep ahead of their losses with the colony creation end of the operation.

They cited the effects of moving the bees, agri-spray exposure, and the practice of prophylactic application of miticides, foulbrood meds and fumagillin as contributors (the prophylactic meds were used to reduce labour costs). They also felt that mobile bees often struggle to find adequate nutrition, leading to reduced disease/pest resistance in the bees, and to lack of vigour.
 

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