>· 125,000 beekeepers--located in every state 
>· 3.03 million colonies--operated by owners of five or more colonies 
>· Typical commercial operation--1500-2500 colonies 
>· About 600 beekeepers operate 1,000 or more colonies each; as a group these produce 75% of the U.S. honey crop 

Commercial beekeepers cannot possibly own 99% of the hives in the USA. Using the above numbers, one percent of the total hives would be 30,000 and these would be owned by 124,400 beekeepers, or 1/4 hive per beekeeper. 

Even if you figure a paltry 5 hives per beekeeper and 100,000 non-commercial, that's 500,000 hives. I would bet the non commercial average would be more like ten, bringing the total to a million hives, or about 40% of the current estimate at around 2.5 million. 

However, in the 1980s the census stopped including beekeepers with less than five hives, which at the time caused the number to fall by at least another half a million. So there is a distinct possibility that half the hives in the USA do not belong to commercial beekeepers at all.

Again using the numbers above, 600 commercial beekeepers owning an average of 2500 hives each would only account for 1.5 million hives. That's about half.

PLB

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