Wow! Huge thanks to everyone who replied! I'm glad I asked about this before I naively went and blabbed my intentions all over the neighborhood. 'Nuf said, I'll keep my big mouth shut. However, the street I live on has nothing but brand new houses with hardly a tree in sight anywhere, so my hives will definitely be visible to anyone who looks. There's no camouflaging them since everything is out in the open here. I'm just gonna hope that the average Joe won't recognize a horizontal hive, since that's what I'll be using, instead of the typical Langstroth.
I checked the state and local laws here a few weeks ago and was assured that raising bees won't present a problem as far as ordinances or laws go as long as I don't sell bee products from my home, which would then cross into regulations for home businesses. I'm lucky that everyone I spoke with was very friendly and freely shared all the information they could come up with. One fellow has really been great and has gone out of his way to find resources for me. Just today, he emailed me about a virtual beekeeping class being held next week. Of course I signed up for it. I've had a hard time getting much response from local beekeeping clubs because of Covid. I keep asking if anyone is willing to do some virtual classes or meetings, but most of them don't even answer my emails or calls. So I was especially glad to hear about the virtual class.
I do realize the importance of being a responsible beekeeper and want to do my best at that, for myself, the bees, and my neighbors. Thank you all for being so helpful. It's probably obvious how much I don't know about all this, so I'm especially grateful that I can come here and get answers to my questions, no matter how goofy they may be. I'd dearly love to find a mentor so I could maybe get some hands-on experience before setting up my hive, but... well... Covid. Everyone has battened down the hatches, no in-person mentoring to be had. So thanks again for helping me out with such great and thoughtful answers.