I am sorry if this has been discussed, but I made it halfway through this thread and didn't see it.
I was going to start keeping bees this year, but finances were low so I got chickens instead. I already had a building I could use as a coop, but I'd have to buy all new stuff for the bees. Not including the price of the bees.
My main cost though, for bees, is the fact where we live has bears. I was told I would have to run an electric fence around the bee yard. I could not afford that this year, so I postponed it.
However I took a bee keeping class where an inspector with the department of agriculture came to speak and someone asked him about bears and bees and he said if an electric fence was not feasible he recommended a top bar hive hung from a tree branch. He said a bear would swipe at it, but would not be able to get in. I don't know though, bears seem determined. Next year I plan to run several hives, both top bar and conventional, but I plan to fence the area in either way.
My dad was a beekeeper but lost his to mites in the early 90s during the huge pandemic that wiped out many people's bees before they knew what it was. He opened his hive the following spring and had supers full of honey, but dead bees.