per request of Helomech, here is what i do and know about honey bees.
IMO, they are easy to do. start up cost is $100-$xxx depending on access to woodworking tools and knowledge. you could buy from several online or local stores, if your lucky enough to have 1 close.
how i got started is a friend has 12 hives, he is in with another guy that got him started in it. i started helping Lorenzo with his hives, cleaning boxes, making frames, building frames/boxes, making sure he had what he needed done on time. then i got interested in a small Top Bar Hive for my yard and garden. i looked around and found a set of plans on the interweb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_top-bar_hive good article
http://www.wasatchbeekeepers.com/top...s-david-bench/ basic idea and plan
http://timeinventorskabinet.org/wiki...ar_hive-02.pdf basic idea and plan
i don't have a pictures of my build, sorry, didn't think about it. mine is an idea we had. why not modify a TBH with a Langstroth Brood Box. the idea being i liked the look of the TBH and the added brood box i could add honey supers and make a little more honey and let the bees have the honey in the TBH.
this is mine. it has an observation window (plexiglass) so i can see what's going on without opening it up and disturbing them.
here are the top bars i made. it's a piece of 1x material with a grove cut and a piece of Plasticell cut to 1 in and the i added some beeswax to aid the bees.
this is the top bar with bees and honey, the white is capped honey, the open cells aren't ready to be capped. also, the honeycomb cells are slanted downward at 1 to 3 degrees.
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