I like to recommend Sue Hubbel's "A Book of Bees" to newbies.  It's
available in our local library, and our town doesn't have a traffic
light, to give you an idea of its size.  It's well written enough
to be easy, pleasurable reading, and she covers enough basics to get
one through a lot of startup questions, and it's relatively short.
I've never quite found all the answers I was looking for in the
good ol' "ABC XYZ," and it's intimidatingly long.
 
[log in to unmask]  Camano Island, WA, USA