Professor,  thanks for the numbers.  In my area and to my thinking that is a fantasy.   Growing up in Iowa (pesticide central)  if you approched 30% annual losses (summer and winter)  you had a good season.    Honey prices dirt cheap,  and bees swarmed a lot as there was no point in trying to stop them as they were not worth much.
Given the simple number that most hives split at leat once a year,  it sure seems to me that about anything less than 50% loss is going to depress the market horribly.   I look at  a season with 20% loss and have to sell bees off.  Luckily for my checkbook,  some years others have losses,  some years they are mine.

I fully understand Ontairo (and other places) had a very rough season,  and losses may very well be higher than normal.  My only point was that the math and locig in that report seemed far from helpful,  and sure seemed to lead into the misleading.

That far north is going to be a tough place to raise a seasonal insect,  no two ways about it.  
Charles

   

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