I’m not sure where you live, but around my parts (Western PA) many of us lost lots of our hives last year.
I had to start from scratch this year and imported both Italian and Russian (collusion!) queen’s. So far I managed to split one hive so we are at a net positive.
One beekeeper I know had 33 hives last year and only 7 made it through the winter.
Bee shortage is not a lie here in the north east.
Been beekeeping 14 years.
Typically, I was getting used to losing 25% of hives over the winter.
A year ago, I had 8 hives. After the winter, I was down to 1, experiencing the most losses I’ve ever had.
now, two loses, I can say were due to carnivorous wasps. The bulk of my loses were probably mite related.
But, perhaps it’s glowbull warming (insert Goebbels icon here).
Yr right....it is a huge problem.