I wanted to have bees years ago in Nashville in the 70's (my hippie days) when we lived on country acres just outside of town, but I was in grad school with three little children and just couldn't find the time or energy.
When I moved to Atlanta, I pretty much gave up the idea of bees and settled down to working and raising my children. The kids said that every time one of them left home I got another dog - pretty much true. For a while my household consisted of me and three dogs!
I started looking into having chickens here in my urban environment, but gave the idea up when I bought some mountain property and am not in Atlanta that often on the weekends.....didn't want to pay for a chicken sitter!
One weekend as I was driving to the mountains, I was listening to Walter Reeves' garden talk show. He had a member of Metro Atlanta Beekeepers as his guest. The guest described the "short course" on beekeeping that would be happening in Georgia in February. I called from the car and signed up!
I went, got hooked, came home and ordered two nucs and began ordering equipment, building it and painting it - and now I have two hives, two dogs (the third died right before I took the beekeeping course), and no children living at home any more!
I'm about to be a grandmother for the first time and I think having bees will be more fun to share with my soon-to-arrive grandson as he gets older than my other interests of quilting, knitting, and baking bread.
Linda T busily keeping bees in Atlanta