Well, I never DID buy a honey extractor, and so that cut my costs a great deal! I also bought used equipment, which I now know is not recommended for a novice because it can harbor disease, but who knew? It worked out OK.
To get the honey, I used the crush and strain method which worked out very well. I just put the entire crushed mess into an ordinary kitchen strainer and walked away. An hour or so later it had pretty much finished dripping, and the fine bits of wax were in the process of floating to the surface. I eventually was able to skim the fine bits of wax off. You get less honey if you crush the combs but extractors are expensive and I am limited to just two hives by city regulation. I decided that an extractor would not be worth the initial cost.
I did spend about $500, eventually, but I spent $100 of that for wooden hives and among other things I got about 50 boxes with roofs and hive bottoms and such, and so I can have as many hives as I wish.... excepting that my city allows jut 2 hives! I did eventually buy a second smoker, another veil, a real hive tool, and so forth.
Ideally a novice, at minimum, starts with a hat, veil of some sort, smoker, plastic dishwashing gloves with rubber bands around the wrists (the bee cannot sting as the gloves are slippery), long pants tucked into socks (you do NOT want a confused bee crawling up your leg), a long screwdriver to pry the frames free of the wax inside the hive (or a hive tool) enough woodenwork for 2 hives, the frames to sit inside the hive boxes, and bees. If you buy new, perhaps that would be $500??? Give or take $100.
The biggest expense by far is in the hive bodies, floor, and roof. So, some people make their own. I did make my first one but the work was kind of amateurish.
Experienced beekeepers often work with bare hands, as smoked bees do not usually sting unless you bump them and startle them. But, nerves make a new beekeeper clumsy and so it is better for them to wear gloves otherwise it is likely they WILL jar the bees and startle them. The thing is, bees need to be standing firmly to get the stinger in and with dish washing gloves their feet slip enough to prevent that. I have watched them try and I have watched them fail.
A very good source for bee information is
www.beesource.com. It is a pretty active bee forum!
One caution: you can work your hive in a t-shirt and shorts and bare hands if you choose, but *DO* wear a veil! You will eventually be stung, and you do not want to be stung on your eye. Even if a bee crawls up your pants leg and gets squished that will only hurt like blazes: a sting in the eyeball can do more damage!
