The argument should really be "fix regulations governing the honey industry", because nothing about honey farming has to be cruel or harmful to bees, but the law literally requires it to be in the case of Langstroth hives and many mite-mitigation things that end up stressing bees out for the sake of bureaucracy.
1/3 of colonies dying in winter sounds bad, and is certainly inefficient from an agricultural perspective, but wild hives don't have better survival rates. Parasites are an issue mostly due to beekeepers historically favoring breeds which were fine before mites were a big problem but don't have good grooming behaviors to deal with the modern situation. Due to higher productivity and "that's how we've always done it", they still use those slovenly breeds.
t-3•3h ago
1/3 of colonies dying in winter sounds bad, and is certainly inefficient from an agricultural perspective, but wild hives don't have better survival rates. Parasites are an issue mostly due to beekeepers historically favoring breeds which were fine before mites were a big problem but don't have good grooming behaviors to deal with the modern situation. Due to higher productivity and "that's how we've always done it", they still use those slovenly breeds.