I also think the hours of study and experience are the most valuable thing one can have. But as to specifics, with me one of the nicest things is that keeping bees and landscaping help each other, so I would encourage people thinking about this to try to look to see how bees could complement what they are already doing. I need a truck to go to both jobs, for instance, so that's an expensive piece of equipment that I have anyway. Lots of my landscape customers ask me to bring a bottle of honey with me, so that's time and gas I don't have to spend. If I get a call to fix someones sprinklers next to an apiary, I can work the hives then, and that saves more time and gas. As to how much a hobby/sideliner can make, I imagine it's all over the map. For me, I keep money from honey, pollination, killing yellow-jackets etc.. in a separate account, so I've a good idea of what I really make. For me at 100 (more or less) hives last year income was 11000 dollars. Minus depreciation and 5.5% interest from my homeowners line of credit on the 17 thousand dollars I spent 5 years ago to build up from a couple hives (I somewhat arbitrarily funded one truck from the bee money) I recon I made about 8 thousand dollars. That works out to about 15 bucks per hour, which wouldn't allow one to even rent a house on the Central Coast here, let alone eat three meals per day. But since I can do it when the contracting is slow, and since I get lots of contracting work in the course of working with the bees, and since I love it, it 's worth doing, and I think fair to say profitable. At least it's a welcome break from digging irrigation trenches all day. Oh, and honey money is usually cash! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::