We had (can’t remember the numbers) between 20 and 50 hives at various times. We started with a nuke which is a “mini” colony. My instinct is to start in the warm weather by shadowing a beekeeper I’d say, but, you may find a friendly person who would enjoy chatting bees with offers of help cleaning, repairing frames and so on. That would perhaps be nice for both of you.
We only ever used veils (not the whole suit thing) so it wasn’t expensive in “gear” but if you get the bug then you will be needing some different hive items and other kit quite soon. Often beekeepers will lend you things but of course come the “honey season” they will maybe be using it themselves. We quickly bought our own honey extractor for example.
Getting started in beekeeping is not rocket science and there are definitely a good number of beekeepers to learn from , and, unfortunately, as one “old guy” said to us, there are too many poor and lazy keepers of bees whose advice you should ignore!