Agree with the posts about getting started for yourself. But I would like to add one thing, and that's this: If you're really only going to produce for your own consumption, consider alternatives to the standard Langstroth hives (the ones with which we're all familiar). I've got NUTTIN' against Langstroth's, other than the relatively high initial expense if you're buying everythin new. I can almost guarantee that someone's going to take issue with me on that statement.
Also, there's the storage for supers, additional tools (you think this is the only addictive hobby?!?!?! lol!), space for all of it.... BUT - look into the various top bar hives (TBH), especially the Kenyan Top Bar Hive. It won't necessarily compare with the honey output of a langstroth hive, but it's free (if you use old lumber) or nearly free, easy to make, simple management practices, and --- well, look it up. Also the Warre' hives. Like I said, they're alternatives, not necesarily "better." If money's not an issue, do whatever you like, but if you want or need to do it for as little as possible, check them out.
This spring, I'll have at least 1 (likely 2) KTBH, 1 Warre', and 1 Langstroth hive. I have no intentions of using them to compare honey production especially since I probably won't even have the same breeds in all the hives, I just want to get a feel for each type of structure and management style. Um, and for the honey, of course! I have fairly large garden (90' X 188'), we're surrounded by 92 acres of orchard (mostly apples, some pear and plum also), I grow grapes, and buckwheat (I turn it under as a green manure/soil structure builder after it goes to seed, then run a disk over it and I get a second crop - for free!), tobacco (nice to have additive free, including the addictive stuff - even though I quit smoking back in June '97 and don't intend to start up again, the tea and powder are great pest-specific insecticides), and billions of wildflowers within bee range; also, in the neghboring woods we have great numbers of basswood, wild cherry, etc, and in the spring the forest floors are carpeted with trillium, trout lilies, bloodroot and cutleaf toothwort... lots of others.... someone once told me, back more than 40 years ago, that honey from trillium was supposed to be "almost medicinal" for your health and that it tasted wonderful. Never had it, never heard of it from anyone else. Maybe this year I'll know for myself.
Anyways, if you've got even a little room, I say go for it, just learn all you can and make sure not to get greedy and leave the bees with too-little stores for overwintering.
