> Honestly, there aren't too many career paths less promising than
commercial beekeeping.

Don't tell me it ain't "promising" - I literally got off the corporate jet
and into a bee veil.  Never looked back. 

Six little words are the key to success - "Seven-year tax loss carry
forward."

In a word, it is farming, with all the inherent risks and rewards.  You'll
have good years and bad years, and you smooth out the taxable income with
the bad years, and live well every year, as long as you don't over-extend. 
 
When well-run, an under 1000-hive bee business was highly profitable in the
1990s, even with varroa.  Regional pollination, not cross-country.  Bottled
honey sold, wholesale and retail, never in bulk to a packer.  Make spilts
after apples, and rent the splits to truck farmers and kitchen gardens to
pollinate the veggies while the big colonies make honey.  Yep, even my
splits paid for themselves in the first week of their existence.  That's how
you maximize profits, and thereby do not need to increase your size.
Overwintering nucs above full size colonies as taught by Bob Cole circa
1992-93, so that deadouts don't hurt so much in spring.

I dunno if it would still work or not - queens started to fail much sooner,
and more often.  More invasives came in.  Costs had to go up when even
queens became a gamble.

But is anyone so naive as to  think that we drove truckloads of bees around
at night and put only bees on those trucks?
People have only one question for a driver of a truckload of bees, and that
question is "How soon can you be out of this jurisdiction?"
Franklin County VA was and still is one of the moonshine capitals of the
planet, and we were one county to the North.

And sure the hours are long some days, but some of the minutes are
breathtaking.
Name another job where you have no boss but the weather, and get a tan, a
workout, and a sauna each and every day rather than being cooped up in some
chrome and glass monolith to capitalism with windows that won't even open.
Best of all you get to live with the seasons, rather than the latest
project-completion schedule from the pencil-necked project manager at the
home office in Indianapolis.

"What day is it?" asked Pooh.
"Why, it is TODAY" answered Piglet.
"My favorite day!" said Pooh.

Beekeepers are one of the few demographics who actually get the above.

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