May be locale specific, but I don't seem to see the bees that I used to. But you right, the demise of bees has been seriously overstated.
Speaking locally too - Down in the valleys where the farming is, I would agree with you - Bees are not plentiful.
But up in the sticks, it is still the same. Finding wild honey has always been a chore, but it is no different across my lifetime. Likewise homesteaders - where there is an abiding hive, where bees are kept in their generations, all is well.
Makes me think it is a part of the farming - either the pesticides, or the fact that they order bees in, rather than maintaining their own...
