I started 21 years ago and have kept bees in Papua New Guinea, South
Africa and back home in California. I wanted my kids to grow up on honey
instead of sugar, and always had a dozen or so hives. 4 years ago I went
and bought out the equipment of a guy who gave up, and have averaged about
100, and currently have 75 or so.

I'm a Landscape contractor, and I noticed that when I sell my honey at the
Farmer's Market wearing my company shirt, I'd often get as much business
landscaping as I got from my add in the paper! My kids are involved in
harvesting, swarm removal, bottling, selling the honey, as I figure the
skills they learn will help them in whatever they do later in life. Bees
are nice in that when I'm busy with my contracting, they can generally
wait, and when I don't have that much work, there's always a way to make
some money by going out and harvesting. I'm mentoring almost a dozen
newbies, and want to start a club in San Luis Obispo, but I haven't any
organisational skills, and so far none of the others are interested in
starting anything.

I spend about 10 hours per week with bees, including studying, and make
about 15-20 dollars per hour, and that seems to be going up, which is
nice, and the contacts I make selling honey add to this. The best resource
I've found to learn about bees is the archives on this site.

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