Last year I started keeping a bee hive. They over wintered fine, and I'm getting ready to split them soon. Planning on making mead with all the honey I'll be rolling in
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How I brew: Stir plate starters, Extract, Full boil in a Keggle, 10 gallon batches.
Brewing upgrades in progress: temp controlled ferment, stir plate re-work, building mash tun, milling station
Planned House Ales: an Amber, an IPA, a dark IPA, a Mango Ale, a blueberry oatmeal stout, a dry Irish stout, a honey wheat, Apfelwien
Is it really as easy as it sounds? Where did you get your bees/equipment? I'm really interested in making mead, and getting bees almost makes sense if it's truly that easy.
In my limited experience he's been pretty spot on with everything. As near as I can tell there isn't huge amounts too it. It does cost a little money to get set up. You have to get a hive, bees, etc.. but once they are set up it can be pretty darn hands off. Last year I hived 3 lbs of italian bees. I harvested close to a quart of honey and left at least 40lbs of honey in the hive for them to winter over on. I used a crush and strain method to harvest, so that end of it really wasn't much work.
This year I'm hoping to be able to harvest a decent amount of honey. I've never tried mead before, but I figure with home grown honey I might as well! My hive is just in my back yard, and the bees do just fine, without annoying the neighbors or kids too much. Honey bees are amazingly gentle really...
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How I brew: Stir plate starters, Extract, Full boil in a Keggle, 10 gallon batches.
Brewing upgrades in progress: temp controlled ferment, stir plate re-work, building mash tun, milling station
Planned House Ales: an Amber, an IPA, a dark IPA, a Mango Ale, a blueberry oatmeal stout, a dry Irish stout, a honey wheat, Apfelwien
Well my split never really took. So I still have only 1 strong hive, and one small one I'm trying to limp along. If I can get it through winter, maybe it will take off next year. Here is the good news though. This weekend I'll be harvesting 30-40 pounds of honey. I think this is even a bit of a small harvest from my strong hive. Next year I'm hoping it will double. I'm going to gift a lot of it away, but I'll be making one batch of mead for sure!
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How I brew: Stir plate starters, Extract, Full boil in a Keggle, 10 gallon batches.
Brewing upgrades in progress: temp controlled ferment, stir plate re-work, building mash tun, milling station
Planned House Ales: an Amber, an IPA, a dark IPA, a Mango Ale, a blueberry oatmeal stout, a dry Irish stout, a honey wheat, Apfelwien
I ended up with about 27lbs after everything was said and done. The strong hive was honey bound, and I think I could have filled another box or two of honey if I would have put it on during the strong honey flow. Live and learn I guess. Next year I'll add more boxes, and hopefully have a second hive going strong into the flow.
__________________
How I brew: Stir plate starters, Extract, Full boil in a Keggle, 10 gallon batches.
Brewing upgrades in progress: temp controlled ferment, stir plate re-work, building mash tun, milling station
Planned House Ales: an Amber, an IPA, a dark IPA, a Mango Ale, a blueberry oatmeal stout, a dry Irish stout, a honey wheat, Apfelwien
Thanks for the updates! Wish I had the space for it and wasn't worried about my neighbors freaking out. Only on a 1/4 acre and I have so much other stuff going on in my yard it would just be too much. Fun reading about your experience, though!
Time to split soon!
Planning on making mead with all the honey I'll be rolling in 
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