In response to Allan's query- I am an avid reader of Bee-L but rarely contribute.  I do not know how typical I am but here goes.  I am 65, a psychotherapist, and what might best be called a hobby farmer.  My wife and I have rare breed chickens, a large garden, some fruit trees, many berries and lots of flower gardens.  We currently have 4 beehives and I have had between 2 and 5 hives for about 6 years now.  We sell some eggs, plants, vegetables and honey to neighbors and give some to our grown children and grandchildren.  I find bees absolutely fascinating and read quite extensively in the subject.  I subscribe to the ABJ and Bee Culture and belong to SABA and the EAS.  I read 3 or 4 bee related books a year.  We are all organic and so I have not used any of the available varroacides-even the ones that might be acceptable to organic growers.  We are in the Taconic mountain area of eastern New York State-a pretty marginal bee keeping area.  The worst problem I have encountered is bears that wiped me out one year and on occasion will still take one hive or so.  When I was wiped out by the bears I had all of the the hives neatly lined up-since then I have spread the 4 hives around on our 15 acres and since have only lost one hive (at a time).  I generally lose one hive over each winter and purchase a package or nuc each spring.  I rarely feed bees except for new packages or nucs since I leave them plenty of honey each fall.  My hives are all in medium supers since I have had some back surgery and the full size supers are just too heavy. 
I have purchased packages with Russian queens and Carniolan queens as well as Italians.  My production is poor to pathetic but it is plenty for us- about 40 to 50 lbs of honey from the strongest one or two hives-not from each hive from all the hives.  Each pound of honey probably costs me about $5 to produce and about half the harvest is sold for $4/lb.  I extract the honey the old fashioned way by cutting it off of the frames breaking it up and then dripping it through filters. Obviously not a business but it is a wonderful and pretty reasonable hobby.  I have had a boat in the past and as a form of recreation and an expense the bees are both more interesting and a lot less expensive.  
I have taken the EAS Short Course and attend the SABA annual seminars.  My hives generally requeen themselves.  The largest hive or two will swarm and I usually catch one swarm a year-from my own hives and use it to start a new hive.  I generally let the bees be.  I look into each hive in the early spring and I may reverse some supers at that time but unless I suspect a problem I will not bother them until I pull a honey super off of the most populous hives in July and maybe again in late September.  I should add that since we are organic we do have a population of native pollinators but our bees definitely help polinate our gardens and this is an added bonus.  I over winter the hives in 3 or 4 medium supers depending on how large the colony seems.  At least one to one and a half supers would be full of honey.  I have had some hives going for 3 years plus though they have requeened in that time.  I do check for varroa via a sticky board once a year and generally have counts far below the treatment threshold.  I am not sure why this is the case but it is.  I generally have hives on screened bottom boards and in full sun but I have one hive with a solid bottom board that is in shade at least half a day and it has lasted 2 years + and is a good producer of honey.  I don't know why that should be true except that it was started with a Russian queen package-though it replaced it's queen by the spring of its second season. 
Frankly beekeeping is a wonderful hobby for anyone interested in nature but I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to make a living from bees.  I have great respect for any commercial  beekeepers as I do for farmers in general.  For me beekeeping is a way of immersing myself in nature and is richly rewarding.  It does truly make one aware of the weather and the annual cycle of seasons as few other things can.  best wishes to all the Bee-L'ers, Howard Kogan

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::