Honey produced per bee colony

American escape-room locations expanding while American per-colony honey production declines. The puzzle industry and the bee industry, on opposite sides of the regression line. One is finding more rooms; the other is finding fewer flowers.

US escape-room locations grew from about 100 in 2014 to over 2,000 by 2022 as the format went from novelty to standard family-entertainment offering. Honey production per colony has trended down across the same window as colony-collapse stresses, varroa mites, and habitat loss reduced average yields, even as colony counts have stabilised. Two completely unrelated lines on opposite trajectories, sharing a window because the same nine years grew an entertainment format and stressed an ecological one. Different industries, same calendar.

One puzzle industry expanded. One pollinator output declined. The decade was uneven about which puzzles got solved.