Hi SweetPea,

I highly recommend "Beekeeping for Dummies" by Howard Blackiston. It's a great book and probably one of the newest ones available.

Also, you might want to check out beemaster dot com a Great site with an active forum.

As far as waiting to get a farm, you don't have to. Many people keep bees on small plots. The bees will forage for 2-5 miles to find what they need.

Amy

I also found 'Beekeeping for Dummies' to be quite complete and up to date (though it does push beecomerce.com which is one of the most expensive places to buy equipment from).

The best think you can do is find a local beekeeping association or beekeeper. They can be an invaluable resource.

You need not have an established garden as the bees will need much more than you could ever plant. They will find flowers anywhere in a 2-5 mile radius. Spring is the best time to start keeping bees (I'd guess around May for you).

-Tim

Here is a link that might be useful: Beekeeping Associations

Push bee-commerce dot com it certainly does. No other book is as blatant, and for the simple reason that it steers newby beekeepers to an overpriced site make it not recommended in my book.

I got it at half price books, finally, and while it was a good read, and matches almost exactly what I teach at the beekeeping school, it also promotes packages as the way to get bees.

Packages are not recommended by us, in this state, as they seem to be the number one cause of spreading parasites.

The How-To-Do-It Book of Beekeeping, by Richard Taylor.

Good place to find beekeeping books: http://wwww.abebooks.com

I found a whole library of bee books that this guy will send to you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Beekeeping Books

I would not waste your time building a garden for your bees unless you lots of land to add a crop too or you just want too. The bees will go to "wild" sources to get honey. The best resource to use would be an experience beekeeper to mentor you and help you. Try to find a local beekeeping club this is the best way to get started with beekeeping. Some good books are the abc and xyz's of Bee Culture. This book has everything about beekeeping you could possibly want to know. Another good book is the hive and the honey bee if your looking for more on the scientific side of beekeeping more the experienced beekeeper. But one thing to remember read different books and listen to different beekeepers because each book and beekeeper have different styles and techniques of beekeeping. Also remember expensive is not always better. Happy Beekeeping! -Alex

I found Beekeeping for Beginners as a helpful beekeeping guide. You can find it here

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Start Beekeeping