I finally made the leap into offering CSA shares. After accumulating all the necessary gear, books, etc. for beekeeping, all we lacked were the bees. After locating "starter bees" in our region the cost caused a pause. Bees or seeds? No doubt everyone's heard about the strains of the honeybee world. The price to enter beekeeping is accordingly steep. BUT bees can double the gardens output! And of course there's the honey. The real clincher is new research I stumbled upon that the presence of honeybees can drastically reduce caterpillar damage. The caterpillar can't tell the difference between a predatory wasp and a bee and will hide which means it stops eating. That bit of news did it. Our first CSA member can rest assured they have created a new beekeeper single handedly. That first check is headed just south of us to a family apiary in Texas.