My first good bee book I found was "Beekeeping for Dummies"..This helped me understand all the terminology that was printed in all the prior bee books I had read.
If its any consolation to you, I have only seen one of my queens after installation :-D. But I have seen lots of eggs and larva! I figure they move around alot slower than a queen :roll:
What I like about the drones is how loud they flap their wings! They are the LOUDEST bees!..and they dont sting either!
Your bees in a box, regardless, are basically swarms. First you have a hive,...hive gets crowded...bee swarm if left to their own devices. The bees you got originally would have become a swarm anyways if they werent caught up to send to you. In my minds eye, you have a swarm...The bees just havent gone through the political process to make their transformation.
So far, my bees seem to be living well with the ants. These are , so far, piss ants, not fire ants. The fire ants down here are sons a biscuits.They hurt everything!
If you get bees somehow, before you're set up for them,You'll be astonished at how fast you can get things all set up in a mtter of minutes!
We wanna hear more!!
good luck!
your friend,
john