I've got my fingers crossed!

Awesome! Your very own Beehive! ^_^

Also, what does it take to start your own beehive? Apart from the bees and the physical beehive?

It depends on the type of hive, but typically for your average Langstroth hive (the kind which look like several boxes stacked on top of each other), you have several "supers" with about 9-10 frames inside. A super is what you call each of those boxes that stack on top of each other. The frames are the actual things the bees use to make their honeycombs.

At the bottom is the deep super, which is where the bees store all the honey they will need to feed themselves over the winter and raise their babies. The supers you stack on top of that are the honey supers which you will harvest for yourself.

For your personal keeping equipment, you need to have a smoker to keep the bees calm when you need to mess with their hive, a hive tool to splitting through the wax to open up the hive (which looks like a short, flat crowbar with a hook on one end), a hat and veil, and a soft brush. You can have a full white suit, boots, and gloves too, though it's not absolutely necessary.

To get the honey out, you need a hot iron to melt the wax caps off the cells and get the honey flowing. Then if you have a lot of honey to extract, it's good to have a honey extractor. A honey extractor is a large cylinder in which you can stack the laden frames into it and spin them around really fast, and it whips the honey out of the frames and drains it down to the bottom where there is a tap for the honey to flow out into buckets so you can bottle it. :)

How much does it cost to start up a project such as this?

It depends of course...on whether you are building a lot of stuff yourself, of buying it, or how much equipment you get...I'd say around $500 to $1000.

Well, for the purposes of this comment thread, let's assume that you're buying everything, from the actual wooden beehive, to the equipment to the full white suit with all the accessories, would the cost still be around $500 to $1000?

As well, where does one procure the bees for the beehive?

Yes, that is the start-up cost.

You can order them through the mail, or if you are part of an apiary society, you can get them from someone in your club.

In my country it seems as if it's more trouble than worth. By that I mean a lotta paperwork is necessary even before I can think about starting up a beehive.

Good luck! FHA loans are hard to get :( I know -.-

Aww.. welp, maybe you can expand later?: )
Oh man beehives?: D
What all plants do u think you'll be growing to affect the honey?: 3

Lavender and berry bushes! I LOVE blackberry honey!

Interesting... you're the first person I've met with an interest in beekeeping. My interest is just academic, but could be serious...
I hope your goals for an apiary come true easily.

Thanks! It might be a couple years before I start that project. Not sure. It's very costly to start it up. I think I'll get started with mason bees in the beginning.

They easier to keep?

Yup! They don't make any honey, but you set up a little hut with some reed or cardboard tubes for them, and they collect mud and pollen for their babies. Then you collect the tubes, keep the babies safe, and then put them out again to restart the process.

They are becoming a depended upon alternative to honey bees since our honey bee population is dying out at a horrific rate. :(

coolness, I used to raise bees in High School "FFA" I had 3 supers, and harvested the honey my self. I had totally mellow bees, could open the top super and pull out the frames without any protection.

Unfortunately, lately, the wild hives that like to populate the trees around here are all africanized... and will chase you even if you are 50 feet away.. they suck...

=^.^=

That is extremely cool!!!!

Ooof...yeah, africanized bees scare the crap out of me. They haven't reached Washington yet, but I do not doubt that they will eventually.