A big caveat is that beekeeping is very specific to the area where you live. In Australia, the beekeeping season is much much longer than it is in the US, and one can harvest honey more than one time a year. In the states, the season is shorter because of the colder winters, and there are also many more hive-destroying diseases, fungi, parasites, etc.
One thing they stressed is not to use pesticides in your garden, something that I've always agreed with. Pesticides can go into the pollen and then affect the bees. I wouldn't want honey that had traces of pesticides in it. Go with more organic methods to keep pests out of your plants, or don't keep them out at all (Are they really hurting anything more than the pesticides would?).
The instructors also poked fun at the kinds of neighbors that don't want to live near a beehive - the NIMBY problem. The thing is, often they've found if you don't tell your neighbors and act discreetly about your hive, but then present them with honey 6 months later and explain the hive has been there for some time, they react much more positively. It's hard to argue having a hive nearby if they already haven't noticed it for some time. Plus, there is the benefit of having bees to pollinate all the gardens in the neighborhood.
One thing that I didn't realize is now important tracking the Queen's activity is. Queens occasionally screw up and it can affect the temperament of the whole hive. Replacing a queen that's doing a bad job can completely turn everything around. A lot of regularly checking and maintaining a hive is making sure the queen is just doing her job and hasn't gone AWOL.
Another thing I didn't know is that if you move the hive over just one or two meters, it can completely confuse the bees and the ones that are returning literally can't find it. Silly bees. They also communicate in pretty elaborate ways to give directions to each other, and they'll headbutt someone talking if they think they're giving erroneous directions to shut them up.
I didn't get stung once during the training; it's still been 25 years since the last time I was stung. The bees were mostly amicable and only started to get a little testy after we'd had their hive open for a while. That just means they just buzz around a little more and louder, but that's about it. I accidentally crushed a few when I was moving around the parts of the hive, but they say that's inevitable no matter how careful you are, since there are literally thousands of them.
The class ended with us harvesting and tasting some of the honey castings (honey with a little bit of harmless wax still in it) with bleu cheese and rice crackers. It was a delicious end to the day.
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