I know many beekeepers that have between 50-100 hives but never go beyond that (split) because of their work.
I also know one man who bought 400 right off the bat, and in a matter of just some years he's now well over 5,000 (but has lots of employees that know beekeeping from his other business).
I'm still a teenager and currently only have about 20 hives. I started with 2 some years back and I've pretty much grown consistently (except maybe this year as I had a huge setback, losing almost 50% of my hives).
I like beekeeping (my grandfather and father were "hobbyist" beekeepers as well) and think I can make a living off of this from what I've seen.
I'm wondering how difficult it is to become a commercial beekeeper that makes a living off of his bees as most beekeepers tell me it's a lot of work and gets hard down the road.