> I love beekeeping and I would enjoy turning my interest and passion in
beekeeping into a full time pursuit.  Is this possible?  I don't want to be
wealthy or anything like that.

Hi Pierre, speaking as an ex hippie who also never wanted to be wealthy,
you may find that your priorities change over time : )

Making a living at beekeeping is hard, long work, but possible.  On the
West Coast, if you live on the cheap, you can support yourself on about 500
hives, which will cost you about $100,000 to set up, plus a truck or two,
and extracting equipment.  The question then is, how to come up with the
initial investment.

Best to build up over time, with another "day job."  Make your mistakes
while you are building.  The last thing that I'd recommend is for a novice
beekeeper to try to run hundreds of colonies without a great deal of
experience under his belt.

That said, my sons and I find beekeeping to be a great lifestyle and I
encourage new commercial beekeepers.  As in all agriculture, everything is
largely weather dependent, and you have a lot of lean years, interspersed
with profitable years.  Make sure that you have a cushion or alternate
income for the tough times.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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