I hope I am posting in the right location for this.
I was surfing through YouTube channels one cold wet September day when I came across a video about CCD (Colony collapse disorder). It was an interesting video. The video led me to other videos on bee pests and diseases and eventually beekeeping. Once I was at that point and had started thinking about keeping bees myself well, the writing was on the wall. Being September it was no time to be starting a hive but thinking of starting one? What I wondered would be involved? I began watching more and more videos and started drawing up lists of things I would need. At this point, I have to say the lists that I drew up then had very little resemblance to what I ended up with. The technique I would use to draw up those lists was to go on to a bee supply website and fill the cart up with my list of supplies and see what the cost was. Then I realized I did not know why I should or should not buy this item or that item. Back to youtube and more videos. It was at this point I started researching specific methods of beekeeping and doing more research on the types of hives trying to figure out what would be the best combination for beekeeping here in the Pacific Northwest (Zone 8a).
My final decision was to go with the 5 frame nuc two frames of drawn comb to give the queen some space to lay as the nuc would be close to full of food and brood. I was going to put in drone foundation for the last two frames but what if they only needed 1 or a half, none?. I settled on two wired frames with a starter strip to get them lined up with the other frames figuring the bees would know what they needed to build.
One final word and the only advice I feel qualified to give to new beekeepers, buy your supplies early as you will need to put them together paint them cure the paint and if you leave it till spring you may find the supplier is out of stock or that when you get your bees the hive still stinks of fresh paint.