[MRM]

Keeping bees is pretty easy to do and is not time consuming at all. Honey bees are very mild. After you get used to them you might not need smoke or a suit even to harvest honey. I grew up on a farm where my father decided to start keeping hives, more or less on a whim. We had them for almost 20 years until he died. For many years he'd walk right into the hives, take the tops off and remove the "supers" with no more protection than heavy jeans, a net over his head and long sleeves.

All you really have to do is keep them from freezing. All you have to do to do that it to feed them sugar water when they can't feed themselves. When starting out put out bowls of sugar water while they get their footing. After that, just keep them safe, make sure they have enough to eat, and keep enough supers on the hive to house them all. It's fun and not hard at all.