My name is Steve and I live in northcentral Iowa. I'm retired from the Air Force and have lived all over the world but settled back at the home place about 12 years ago. I became curious about beekeeping a few years ago and bought some books to satisfiy that need. I have some property in the country that has been usused for about 25 years and I had thought of putting hives out there but never followed through. A coworker, who has a five-acre acreage mentioned beekeeping at work a few weeks ago and that piqued my interest again and I drug out the books. I ordered my first hive and some related equipment from Brushy Mountain last night and I've created three more lists of things I will be getting to complete my kit before my first season as a bee rancher begins. You will probably see a lot of me on the forum asking questions and picking your brains for information. I'm an eternal optimist so I'm counting on this first year's experience being a good one and hoping to expand next year if all goes well, and it will. Talk to you all later....T