Beekeeping

I have been doing some extensive research on beekeeping. It was brought to my attention that honeybee's that first year are so concerned with building comb and honey reserves that the beekeeper does little with them. Maintenance but not much else, that as far as local "livestock" goes they are pretty easy to manage. So I looked up my local association to see if there we any classes on basic beekeeping offered, there are but they started the middle of January. YIKES. So I may have missed it. There is however a local farmstead that is offering the same info of the 1 hour a week for 8 weeks class into 4 hour one month compressed class. I have to email her and see if it is possible to get in on that. Then I would have to order my hive and gear. I do have to make this decision quickly however because most apiary's sell out of bees by the end of February. They don't ship them until spring though. Which gives me plenty of time to get everything set up for them. The Spokane County has certain codes around local hives. They have to have a screened off area, and be behind a privacy fence. I think that is so you don't get sued when someone really dumb decides to "poke the ant hill" if you get me.

I had thought about this last year but it was very late in the spring and everything was pretty much closed up for the year. With Jacob's surgery I didn't jump on the band wagon fast enough this time. But all things considered I still might be able to take the compressed class. Which would be totally helpful, considering I haven't the first clue about what I would be doing.