Hello from West Michigan.
This is my first year beekeeping with my own bees and equipment. Last year my friend\mentor gave me a hive to play with in May, and we hived a wild swarm from my property so I feel like in some ways it is my second year but there is much to learn.
I started with four 4-frame nucs the first week of May and we just harvested our first 74 pounds of honey two weeks ago. There is more on the hives and I am hoping for a total of 150-200 pounds. I have surprised myself by the way my interest in bees and beekeeping has remained so strong and even grown over the last one and a half years. It amazes me what a simple insect with a brain the size of the period at the end of this sentence is capable of doing. And they have been doing these things since the time of their creation.
There are not a lot of people with whom I can discuss beekeeping so I look forward to reading many of your thoughts and ideas and I am grateful to have a place to come with questions. I am trying to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can. :)