We always advise anyone wanting to keep bees to start with some reading first. You will not keep bees for long without some knowledge of the honeybee life cycle and biology, disease recognition and pest management, swarm control and queen bee rearing. For a beginners first beekeeping book we always recommend Guide to Bees & Honey by Ted Hooper. We have a private collection of nearly 500 titles spanning 5 centuries of beekeeping and we have learned something new from every one. A lifetime of beekeeping is not enough to learn all there is to know so read as much as you can.