This will be my third year of keeping bees. The first two years I did top-bar style hives, and this year I will be testing out Warre Hives. I have built my own hives to keep costs down (materials for building two warre hives was about $120). I'm not a very experienced wood-worker and building the hives was pretty simple and straightforward.
One thing I would recommend would be to purchase your bees as Nucs from someone local, instead of packaged bees from down south or out west. Nucs are essentially a mini-hive complete with an already established queen, built honeycomb, brood, etc... If you are doing the very highly common langstroth style hives, the nuc frames transfer directly into your hive. The bees are already familiar with their queen and have been working to build a strong hive where package bees are pretty much a couple thousand new recruits jammed into a box with a queen they have to get to know. You can have success with both, for sure... but the nucs are already established and ready to rock.
i live in MN and purchase nucs from a local beekeeper just across the river in WI. Buying local usually means the bees are accustomed to the climate of your area, and quite often come from a line of bees that have been in the area for a while. This can bring advantages in surviving winters and strength against pests. Plus, the beekeeper you buy from can be a good resource for knowledge.
The cost of initial infrastructure can be a bit steep, and if you have to keep buying packages or nucs every year that adds up. But you'll the know the honey is real and you can even influence it's taste by the plants, flowers and trees you grow. When you get a hive to survive the winter, actively plan to grow and split that hive the next year to increase your chances of keeping them going.
Good luck and enjoy.
