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like a lot of things, there's some startup cost, and then maintenance isn't bad. how you do the startup will determine how much initial cost... some things you can do for yourself and that brings the cost down.
here's what you need to start:
a bee suit (or jacket, or hood, depending on how nervous you are about being stung). I started with a jacket which has a built in hood.
bee gloves (ordinary gloves won't work nearly as well, get the bee gloves)
a smoker. special smoker fuel is optional
a frame/hive tool
a bee brush
bees.
If you go with regular hive boxes you'll need:
a hive (bottom board, lid) with 2-4 boxes (2 deeps plus two shallows, or 4 mediums, or 4 deeps)
10 frames of the appropriate size per box (can be with built in foundation, or you'll need foundation also)
if you go with a top-bar hive you'll need:
top bar hive
hive cover
top bar frames to fill the hive
a divider to move back as bees expand the area they use.
optional items:
a queen excluder
a fume board
a bottom board with slide out tray and sticky board
Bee-Go or something like it for moving bees out of the frames
a frame puller / holder
paint for the outside of the hive
various medications
a frame feeder or landing board feeder
an entrance reducer
bee food if you need to suplement over the winter
corn syrup or sugar if you need to feed.
a book or DVD on beekeeping
if you're going to do a fancy job of processing the honey, you'll need:
an extractor
a capping knife (manual or electric)
a settling tank / jar filling tank
a honey filter
special frames for comb-in-the-honey packaging
custom printed labels and jars for your product...
I don't think I've left anything out...
so. to bring down costs you can:
build your own boxes and frames. they're not difficult if you're handy, but it's probably cheapest to buy knocked down boxes and frames and put them together yourself, rather than work from scratch.
build your own top bar hive (most of these are home made.)
process your honey by hand (messy! and doesn't let you return the comb to the bees... they have to build new) but you'll need to buy new foundation each time if you have foundationless frames (not expensive.)
you can buy a full hive with bees already in it from some beekeepers. you'll still need the suit and tools.
You can capture a feral swarm and install it in your hive. sometimes this works well, sometimes not. not all ferals are friendly, and not all are high producers. I still love them and keep some.
costs... it's regional. you can check BetterBee or Brushy Mountain Bees online for nice "beginner beekeeper" packages. and also to see the plethora of cool things you might find you really want...
for equipment, if you can buy used from another beekeeper, that's good, but do ask if they've had any bee diseases (may still be present in the hive box or frames) or if they've used chemicals for treating the bees (also can build up in the boxes, and I use natural methods whenever possible.)
buy new gloves and a suit that fits.
buy bees from a reputable keeper with healthy stock. there are lots of apiaries that sell "package" bees (3lbs of workers and a queen) that you can install in your hive. package bees are $70-90 plus overnight shipping of maybe $50-60 dollars. (total $120-150). it's a few dollars more to have the queen marked or her wings clipped.
if you buy a hive from a local beekeeper already set up with bees in it, in CA that might be $170-250. not a bad deal, actually, if you consider the cost of package bees, plus shipping, plus a hive, plus frames. you do want to ask about the breed and temperament of the bees, and the age of the queen.
many things can be improvised... for instance you can make your own fume board, or tray and stickyboard, or your own entrance reducer, or buy an inexpensive feeder insert and make your own feeder out of a home depot bucket. if you're comfotable with the bees, you can handle them in jeans, a chambray long sleeved shirt, a net hood over a ball cap and bee gloves. I know folks who don't even use the gloves.
so how much does it cost? that depends.
decide on how you want to do this... somewhere between build it all yourselves and buy it all pre-made... and then start pricing on line. go to the local beekeeper group meetings, that's the place to find local resources (reduce shipping costs), find used equipment, and find out about buying bees locally.
happy beekeeping!
oh, and you were warned that keeping one hive of bees leads to keeping more hives of bees, weren't you?
