......How do you figure out what happened? All you really know is that one dies and one lives.
Randy's approach covers all that.
This is all really easy.
What is on your list, AR, is nothing new - these issues have been forever.
And yet still the people kept the bees forever too.
So - all those variables, ALL of them amount to historical background noise which results in background mortality.
It is all just a black box noise and can be clumped together as such.
We now have one extra mite variable added - conveniently, we can measure IT (this separate and distinct variable) - separately from the background noise.
In fact, measuring the mites is trivial to do, it can be done at home and for free, and it is precise enough to be meaningful.
This is huge!
Go and measure nosema, EFB, viral load, etc, etc - NOT possible without considerable effort and resources.
To compare, the mite monitoring is really, really easy.
I know I resisted doing the counts myself (due to "guru influences") - but honestly, it should be done and accounted for by everyone in routine decision making (treating or not treating is less important - but situational awareness is more important).