If reconstituting new hives from annually purchased queens was economically non-viable, pollination prices --- which is where the money in honey bee husbandry seems to come from --- would show that. But while prices have risen, it doesn't look like they've done so at a historically unprecedented rate.

Irrigation is a much bigger economic threat to pollinated crops than pollination.

Yes, this is true -- in large agriculture, pollination is where the money is in beekeeping. I know pollination contracts stipulate "frames of bees" to be considered a hive (for example you might need 20 "frames of bees" to get paid for that hive) but I also think you're getting weaker hives out there for pollination. So while the price isn't going up, the size of the product is going down.

Same concept as the cereal boxes. They look the same from the outside, but they put less cereal in it and charge you the same price instead of raising the price.

Honey sales aren't your only revenue source. You can also charge farms for transporting your bees there and pollinating their crops. And I believe the article said this price point is also increasing.

They are your only source on the small "hobby" scale (maybe wax and pollen too but that is more labor intensive) but pollination contracts aren't open to you until you're doing this full time.

Now, Hobby scale honey can usually be sold for more than wholesale honey that the pollination guys use to offload their crop so hopefully that makes up the difference.

For me, I'll never catch up if I keep having the massive losses I've been having -- even if I sell my honey for $7/lb ($8 total including the jar and label). The wholesale price is around $2-2.50/lb

Also more anecdotal evidence, but I was talking to a local beekeeper. For fields that they sprayed, the lost over 60% of their bees per year. They got sick and tired of it and decided to place their bees long term in fields that do not spray. Now, their bees are less stressed, don't get sprayed, and the bee deaths plummeted, and they do less work trying to build the ranks after than they were dying.

Win-win for them really.

I know next to nothing about this, but I have a question. Couldn't you make more hives yourself? What prevents you to 'cultivate' (or whatever it's called) queens and let them mate?

Yes, bees create new hives by themselves. Every year there are couple of swarming that include young queen leaving the hive to build new colony. In traditional beekeeping, the owner will catch the swarm, put it to new home and you've got another hive, which you either sell or use for more produce.

The problem is that a lot of hives die during winter (because of various form of illness and conditions) and the population couldn't sustain themselves.

Hives are only swarming if in very good health, and even then both new colonies are more vulnerable than the former one... It's certainly not "every year a couple of swarming" (how would that be sustainable anyway).

If they have to split hives forcefully, it's because they are not healthy enough to do it naturally...

Wrong information, sorry: during swarming the old queen leaving the hive and left the new queen her old hive.

Beekeeping is such an interesting hobby. Shame I hate (scared of hah) buzzing insects and stings!

Seems like you should try selling hives instead of honey.