I've tried to keep bees for three years and didn't have much success. Granted I was using a custom designed and built hive style known as a horizontal hive.
Anyway, if you are interested in trying it yourself I recommend the Audubon Bee School held in Henderson on March 3. I've been to the Indy school and I much prefer the local option:
http://www.kyagr.com/statevet/bees/bee% ... derson.htm
The organizers of the school are Paul and Betty Stone, owners of Stone Hill Honey Farm in Henderson and they sell nucs of bees in the spring. All the major vendors of bee supplies will be at the school and if you order early from them they will bring your order with no shipping charges to the school for pickup. This is very important when shipping heavy wood hives! $$$
I also have a brand new "normal" Lang hive built, painted, and ready to go along with books, and a couple years worth of American Bee Journal magazine that I'm ready to toss in the recycling bin. I also have four of my custom hives ready to go to a good home. I'll probably keep my bee suit and veils but I could get rid of some other tools.
Peter Frederick has had some success on keeping bees this year and Steve Woods has lots of hives for a few years and makes excellent honey if you are looking for advice.
On a side note:
I may have a supply of Blue Orchard Bees (Mason bees) next year to pass out. This is a native solitary bee that emerges early in the spring and out performs the honey bee in pollinating early blooming fruit trees. They can be kept in a small grouping of bamboo tubes (what I do), special woods homes you can buy on the internet, or drilled out blocks of wood. The new generation overwinters in the tubes (the old one dies off) and they can be transported at that time. A tube has about 7 bees in it. I'm trying to build up my numbers before passing out a few tubes filled with larva to establish a colony. I'm up to a dozen filled tubes this winter and hope to at least double that this spring.