I hate to beat a dead horse. I understand the spirit of this thread, and I believe that, given the right person and the right circumstances, beekeeping could be an inexpensive hobby. I disagree completely with the title, "Beekeeping is a very cheap hobby." For most hobbyist beekeepers, it is anything but inexpensive (see comparisons to "cheap," as well). And the flat-out statement is incorrect, I think.
I think this is fair, as long as readers understand that we truly are not talking about "beekeepers" inclusive of those rare folks who have unmanaged hives living in trees on their property. Such "keeping" certainly is cost-free, but hardly qualifies as "beekeeping" as most of us understand the term.Anyway after all this, I think we can safely say that NOBODY really keeps bees for free (as you claimed in the first post of this thread). -Nabber86
Actually, you did. The last line of your original post in this thread read:And again I didn't claim that but you can see what you want to see as you usually do. -Acebird
Powerful statement, but not accurate. Other hobbies certainly exist. And some costs (expenses amounting to at least 10cents, or one dime) go along with every form of beekeeping that I would term "beekeeping."It is the only hobby that I know of where you literally do not have to spend one dime to get into. -Acebird
I like the stimulation of ways to save money in beekeeping from this discussion. Some creative ideas have been suggested here. Not all of them will work for all people; a number of the ideas will not be practical for the vast majority of beekeepers. It has sparked discussion of ways to start less expensively for people who otherwise might not be able to come with the money to buy all their equipment and bees.