Brian, welcome to our forum, you have already been greeted by warm welcomes, that is good and wonderful. Yep, we have another Brian, cool. Brian is a good name.
That must have been exciting to see that the bees that you and your friend went out to see had lived and were rollin' on. Yeah!!
This forum will be your learning tool, as will your experiences with your bees hands on. Ask all your questions, lean on us. You will always have great answers for your questions, you will see.
Wonderful that you have two boys that will help you, they will become under the spell of bee, as you will too, we are all under this spell, it is addictive, and once you have bees, in so many cases, one will always have bees, unless of course there are extenuating circumstances. The more that you learn, the more that you will want to learn, and you will become a great beekeeper.
The bees will pollinate your gardens and flowers, your harvests of food will become more prolific and larger, the bees, among other pollinators bring about wonderful things in nature. Welcome, have a wonderful day, enjoy this great life we live, enjoy your time spent here. Cindi