my neighbor raises/keeps them, expensive hobby he has had at least 6 of his hives die and that's a lot of bees and not cheap to replace.. this year I think he added 5 more hives and had his best year for honey in 3-4 yrs. If we dont quit using so many pesticides we are not going to have any bees left, heard scientists think they've found out that's why bees are having a hard timing fighting off that fungus that attacks/kills them.