Jim Fischer writes:
If one loses 1/5th to 1/3rd of their colonies each year despite best
efforts, this forces pollinators to increase in the number of hives they
attempt to maintain because one needs half again as many colonies to expect
to meet pollination contracts while still taking the losses.  But this is a
very different model from not so long ago, when survival rates were far
better, and beekeepers could expect to spilt strong colonies and expand
their hive counts for nothing more than the cost of woodenware.

Joe Traynor writes:
> In his detailed scholarly article, The Fall and Rise of the Honey Bee, Peter Loring Borst reminds beekeepers that the 30+% winter losses currently incurred by U.S. beekeepers are no different than the losses reported during the 100 years prior to the introduction of Varroa mites to the U.S. and to the later finding of nosema ceranae here. 

http://www.beeculture.com/keep-bees/

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