I'm also curious to see if with fewer colonies, we see a noticeable difference in excess honey production. We have never seen a colony fill a hive to 20 frames. Each colony CONSUMES 200 pounds of honey per year to just survive in our zone. So, the (4) colonies that went queenless will free up a theoretical 800 pounds of honey for surplus. My (4) working colonies cannot save that much excess, but could each save about 40-50 pounds more than they typically do. So, my optimal number of colonies may be about (6). That would create a need for 400 pounds to survive, and 160 pounds of excess. Adding one more colony would just divide the resources too much and limit excess honey.
I didn't get into this to sell honey, but I won't lie, $4000 a year for minimum input is very nice.