Honey produced per bee colony

Last Christmas climbing the December chart each year while per-colony honey production declines. Two completely independent annual phenomena, sharing a six-year window where one quietly thrives and the other quietly suffers.

Last Christmas finally hit Number One on the UK chart in 2021, 36 years after release, with American Hot 100 movement also accelerating in the streaming era. Honey production per colony has trended down across the same window as colony-collapse stresses, varroa mites, and habitat loss reduced average yields. Two completely unrelated lines on opposite trajectories sharing a window because the same six years saw a streaming-era chart resurgence and a quiet ecological yield decline. Different industries, separate fates.

An old hit found new ears. An old pollinator found fewer flowers. The decade was unkind to one and kind to the other.