I managed to keep a hive from May, though the winter, and still going strong. Currently I have three hives and should work those into five or more next year. In my introduction post @smellz asked about pictures of my bees, so here goes that and then some.

Pictures from my experiences	.
landing zone	curious pup checking out a feeder
basic stand	lotta bees
a frame with capped honey at top brood on the bottom	starter setup

BASICS

1. There is only one queen
2. Almost all bees are female, only drones are male
3. Basically all drones do is mate (then die)
4. Drones can't sting
5. If you keep bees you will get stung once in a while
6. Most people aren't endangered by a sting, it's just a pain and discomfort
7. Bees are hairy looking. Wasps, yellow jackets and such are smooth.
8. If all the honey bees in North America died tomorrow it wouldn't stop pollination from happening and thus we all would not starve. Honey bees were imported from Europe so native pollinators would still be around.
9. A hive will have 10 - 40 thousand bees or more
10. For each bee you may only get one drop of honey
11. It is common to harvest forty pounds of honey or more from a good hive
12. A good bee keeper can split one hive into two or three per year but will not get much honey
13. You probably will lose a hive in your first year of learning

If you are interested in beekeeping the best thing you can do is find a group near you and start attending meetings. Local factors are important and you'll meet experienced keepers, they are your most valuable resource. Keep in mind that if you ask five bee keepers about a specific subject you could get six answers. So glean what you can, respect the source, compare how things work out for you, ask more questions and then gauge what methods prove out.

Should you decide to take up this hobby you'll find many guides telling you what a starter kit should have. The obvious things are:

Hive parts

Bottom (base), Hive body (deep and medium sizes), frames (these go in the body), inner cover, outer cover (weather proof)

Tools & Gear

Veil and hat, hive tool, smoker, gloves

Bees

You need to obtain live bees! It can be done via mail, believe it or not the post office will even call you on a Sunday to come pick them up. Or you can get them delivered via private carrier. Since you've met up with long time bee keeps months ahead of time you can expect one or more of them to be selling when the time is right. Order in advance and have all your equipment ready! Not only will you help support a possible mentor you save the girls all the stress of being boxed up and hauled hundreds of miles.
A package of bees is the cheapest and consists of a three frames with brood (eggs, larva), nurse bees, worker bees and a queen.
A nucleus (aka "nuc") will be five frames of bees. The more the merrier so this is most common for people to start with.
Of course you can also find a complete hive for sale and if you have an experienced inspector check it out then it has the optimal chances to survive and provide you honey soonest.
One more thing; it's highly recommended that you begin with two hives so you can observe the differences in them and have a better success rate.

All said you can expect to spend close to a thousand dollars and wait months before you get that first jar of honey. This is not a hobby for impatient folks but it is a fascinating one.

Since starting I have learned to feed bees, eaten honey from my own hive, what pests and diseases to check for, captured a swarm of bees from inside someone's wall, made new friends, been stunned by loss and learned to build basic parts. I've ditched the gloves and just let the bees walk on my hands while I inspect the hive for health and monitor honey and pollen stores.

swarm capture pics	.
I literally just scooped bees out of a wall cavity and dumped them into this box. And another box and another.	Then poured them into an empty hive! After closing it up I let all the stragglers find their way to the new home.

If you've made it this far then you're ready to get out to the nearest club to learn more. Best of luck!

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