Hello All,
Body parts wear out and people are living longer.
Hard for me to give advice with only saying you need knee
Replacements.
Rare the person needing knee replacement does.not.have other health  issues.
I have found one needs to follow doctors advice after a surgury concerning weights and doing therapy.
I doubt few on the list have tore and hurt the body parts I have hurt. 
Scars from repairs and surgurys on every area of the body.
Less than half related to beekeeping.
If after following doctors orders and rehab you return to running a small sideline I would hire a helper when doing serious bee work.
Forget removing supers with a tripod when dealing with a couple hundred supers and working with many hives.
By yourself you are going to find times you are going to be by yourself and break the rules. You did not say your age but replacement knees have a lifespan and heavy work Will shorten the time span.
If you are not making enough money off your sideline to hire extra help with removing supers  then you need to downsize?
The help i use make quick work of heavy supers.
Young bodies work circles around old guys with knee problems.
Even a lifelong beekeeper in the movie Ulee's Gold had enough sense to hire heavy supers removed and placed in the extracting area. 
If you remove the actual beekeeping scenes from the movie there are around thirty minutes of actual commercial beekeeping. The movie is a very accurate look at the work involved.

**I am trying  to give sound advice based in reality (personal experience)  from the outside looking at a situation under discussion. Nothing personal.**

If you are keeping bees for the love of beekeeping then do as others say and look to mentor beekeepers.
Keep a few hives and enjoy?

I could discuss the business aspect of beekeeping for hours but the bottom line is about making mo

Even running 75 hives I believe the advice i give is sound.

*Learn to expand and contract your operation*

Forget numbers of hives. Concentrate on keeping the.numbers you really need for production or pollination.

Always protect your equipment when in storage.

ADVICE:

Consider beekeeping for money like you would sitting in a poker game.
SIMPLE Example:
When the season is starting and conditions are right for a honey crop (sideline honey) then expand. When looking at drought then reduce numbers.

Expand and contract as the need arises.

My knees are not ptoblematic but i keep in shape and am not over weight.

Overweight people *my opinion* always seem to see knee problems ( observation)?

my advice has pissed many a person off but many times outside people will give advice those close to you will not.

Hope the above helps. Sorry for the long post but watching the world series

Go Cardnals! Go Mizzu! Go Chiefs!

Bob
Missouri beekeeper 




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