I'm not sure which is the hardest thing to do. Getting started in bee keeping can be quite a struggle. There is so much choice - National or Langstroth? Poly or wood? And that is just the start of it.
Accepting that the bees you have been caring for many years will have to go, and that you just can't look after them any more, is not the day any bee keeper wants to see - but it will come to us all eventually.
In Scotland AB24 there is still one colony and one nuc left (and very possibly an extractor) that a retiring bee keeper is looking for a new owner to take on.
In Granthen there is a complete apiary with colonies of bees looking for a new bee keeper and a substantial amount of bee keeping equipment too.
Although right now you could simply give a home to a nuc (there are several nucs in poly boxes).