This is my first year of beekeeping. I started out by going to Drapers which is in your part of the country(I'm in California). I bought the deluxe beginner's kit and have been very happy with it. It comes with a book, First Lessons in Beekeeping, that was VERY helpful. I've called Drapers twice since then and they were more than happy to help. Beyond this, the only information I'm qualified to offer is that bee packages sell out fast so order as soon as they will let you. They send everything but the bees right away so that you have time to get used to the equipment.

I'd suggest talking to some local beekeep groups.

http://www.pastatebeekeepers.org/

Welcome Annie, Yes, Find a local club and join it.You should be able to find a beekeeper with an extra veil willing to let you visit a hive or two. Read Richard Bonney's book "Beekeeping A Practical Guide". Check your local library for other books. Get some catalogs. Even if you don't order from all of them they are a good source of general information. Some companies: Drapers, Betterbee, Dadant, Brushy Mountain. You'll be ordering package bees in january for pick-up or delivery between april and may.I've put together a little handout on basics that I use when doing presentations and would be glad to email it to you if you'd like.My address is ant pi sano@ hotm ail.com There are actually no spaces between the letters, but I've heard that if you put your intact address there are programs that fish for them and send junk email. I'm not sure if it's true. Just put some reference to bee information in the subject box. good luck

If you are close to Harrisburg, the Capital Area Beekeepers Assn offers a 'short course' on the first 2 Saturdays each May. The first week is a classroom session, with speakers from the PA Dept. of Ag & Penn State. The second week is at the Milton Hershey School's apiary.

The group will also have monthly meetings starting in October, but I don't know the dates right now. You can pm me if you want me to dig up the info for you.

http://beesource.com/suppliers/association/pa.htm

Take a look here and see if any of these clubs are near you

fist off, you need a hive. if i was starting from scratch, i would buy all medium hive bodies for the brood chamber and for supers. having interchangeable frames of the same size is a great asset. you will need 3 boxes for the brood chamber and at least 2 for honey production. it really doesn't matter where you get these from because all the places sell equipment are about the same, it is the shipping that gets you. also, you need a smoker, a veil or jacket, and a hive tool. second, i would start out with 3 hives and at the least 2 hives. having a few hives will help if you need to bolster one with brood from another, can compare hives to each other, and next winter if you have one that dies out, average is around 30% in some places, you will still have a few hives to make a split from or to capture swarms from. third, being an absolute novice and not being familiar with handling bees, i would try to get the gentlest bees out there. New World Carnolian (NWC), imo, is the gentlest bee. i have some that i never have to use smoke on or protective clothing and never get stung by them. after you get used to handling the gentlest bees, you can requeen with another strain of bee that might be geared more to honey production, mite resistance, disease resistance, hygienic behavior, etc... fourth, i would be doing as much reading now as i could before getting any bees. fifth, find a mentor who would be willing to take you under their wing and help them out in their apiary during inspections. hands on experience is the best way to learn, provided your mentor is a knowledgeable beekeeper. six, maybe not the first year, because your bees will be drawing comb the brood chambers and be getting ready for winter all spring, summer, and fall, but in the second year hopefully you will have some surplus honey to rob. now you will need to buy extraction equipment, or possibly offer to help your mentor to extract theirs in exchange for using their equipment. hope this helps.

Very interesting reply beelover. My daughter and I are attending our first local society beekeepers meeting in a couple weeks. I am also waiting for books in the mail and rubbing my hands together in anticipation. I find bee peoples blogs informative as well. Rhonda

Hi,
I am also planning to start beekeeping this spring. I am in Western NY. From what I have learned so far, I will most likely start with 2 hives. I am contemplating to go with all medium suppers. The place I was going to order my hives sells full size suppers for brood and medium for honey. Also, since we have no beekeepers assn I have connected with local commercial beekeeper. He recommended to me to get nucs rather than packaged bees.

Beelover what is main diff between medium and full suppers, besides the obvious (size)? Could you please comment? Thanks

Safet, First of all on behalf of all of the good people here I'd like to welcome you to the forum! This will be a fairly long reply so bear with me. There is sometimes confusion concerning hive bodies, brood chambers and "supers". For the most part, they are all the same thing other than their depth. A "deep" usually used as the hive body or "brood chamber is 9 5/8 inches high. A medium super is 6 5/8 inches high and a shallow is 5 11/16 high. A medium super filled with honey will run around 55lbs,and a shallow about 40 lbs, so the biggest considerations for honey supers might be how much you can easily lift and carry around as you are working on your hives.The good point of going all medium (3 for brood chamber) would be that you can easily interchange in a pinch, but they won't be compatible with deep frames from a nuc. With that being said, most people in our area NW Mass will use 2 deeps for brood and mediums or shallows for honey supers.
As far as package vs nuc both ways work. Packages are cheaper unless someone you know is giving you a good deal on a nuc. Having a package will allow you to learn right from scratch. You'll get to put the bees into their new hive, check in a few days to see if the queen is out, check in a week to see if she's laying and observe the brood pattern. You'll watch as the bees build comb and add a second hive body, hopefully followed by honey supers. You may or may not get surplus in the first year. Many of my hives have but a few haven't until the 2nd year.
If you get a nuc it's an already established mini-hive, often five frames. It should include a good laying queen with frames of eggs and larvae in all stages. If you're getting a nuc started in upstate NY it will most likely be later in the season than a package but should be going strong when you get it. A newbee out here got 1 nuc and 1 package last year, but I haven't had the chance to see how they compared. One other thing you might consider is going with 8 frame equipment if lifting is a real issue. You use all of the same frames, there's just 8 per box instead of the usual 10.

Tony thanks, and thank you for exhaustive explanation. :)