Stick with what works and skip the guesswork. Ive had my own hives in SE Portland for about four years and the first season was rough because I put a hive too close to a busy sidewalk and the vibrations messed with them. Mites are a real pain too but honestly if you do a sugar roll every month starting in July you catch them early enough. The 80% number sounds about right from what Ive seen around here, but a lot of those failures come from people buying a nuc in April then going on vacation in May without anyone checking the brood. Location matters a ton too, like dont put them in a low spot where cold air settles or right under a tree that drops sticky sap. Its not about being an expert, its about doing the boring weekly checks and knowing when to treat for mites instead of hoping for the best. Start with healthy starter bees from a local breeder not a big box store and you cut that failure rate way down.

might have misremembered" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting there. That's a whole lot of doubt to dump on something after 50 years.

Three times in one month I set off my smoke detector making banana bread. Not even good banana bread. Just charcoal with banana chunks. Ended up buying a $45 pie from the fancy grocery store and told everyone I made it from scratch. Nobody questioned the cardboard box I threw in the dumpster at 11pm.

That 4 grams more protein per serving in bread flour really does make or break it. I went from generic store brand to King Arthur too and my crumb structure got way more open. Did you also adjust your hydration levels when you switched, or did you keep the same recipe ratios?

Ha! That artist is definitely charging rent on hype. Fifteen bucks for a blank white page? You basically paid for a really exclusive error message. Next time someone tries that, I'd ask for a discount. "Oh sorry, my phone's anticipation battery is dead." I bet the artist's next masterpiece is just a blinking cursor on a laptop. "It represents the eternal loading of meaning." Yeah buddy, it represents my credit card getting a workout for nothing.