Local Beekeeper

On my way home the other day I stopped at a bee yard in which I saw a beekeeper working. I drive by these hives every day and I have seen the beekeeper there a couple of times but never had the courage to stop in.
He was busy treating for mites and giving the hives some pollen patties. I typically treat hives for mites with Mite-Away II. It is a formic acid pad which releases formic acid and essentially fumigates  the bees to kill off all of the mites. I personally think that it causes a lot of damage to the bees. I think it mostly works by breaking the brood cycle and therefore breaking the mite breeding cycle and it also does kill mites by fumigation. He was treating them with small formic acid pads which he has to replace every 4 days. He claims that the big ones (which I use) are too strong for weaker hives; he also claims that the bees essentially just stop working while those bigger pads are in; which makes them less prepared for the honey flow. He had lots of excellent points.
The most interesting thing about this beekeeper was that he has five hundred hives located throughout thirty three yards. That is just mind boggling to me. I had previously realized that the only way you can make a living with honey was to have 500+ hives. This man also does it all on his own and he said that he is sixty. Last year he had 30% losses in the spring and this year it is somewhere close to 10%. I think this has a lot to do with our gentle winter but it is really hard to know exactly.
It was nice to meet a fellow local beekeeper. I am still not part of any club or anything and I really only find out about beekeeping through what I read.