Wow, I feel like I'm on a good start!!
So a little over a week ago, I picked up our first bee colony. Did the whole leave queen in box for 5-6 days, take out cork and put in marshmallow and check a couple of days later and she is out and in the brood box somewhere. Bees are "doing well" I think, because after a week they are in and out and we had a comb 12x12 inches. We were pretty excited!!! But... Last night when we pulled the empty queen case, the comb was attached to the queen case and fell/slid a couple of inches down (I think to the base of the brood box). After reading a couple of posts, I think it will be okay, but didn't want to be disruptive, so I left it. Okay or do I need to get it tied back up?
So as we were looking for a lost phone on our 20 acres, my wife spots a swarm. I quickly build a base plate, top plate and vent plate for an extra brood box we have, drive the suburban out and get it. (first time capturing a swarm) We did the best we could to get the whole swarm, take it out to our make shift box and introduce them to their new home. After 30 minutes, 90%+ of the new swarm was either in the box or trying to get in. They are still there this morning!!! Pretty neat (and saved me $100!!) :)
So the "bought" bees were lighter in color and from California.
The Swarm is much darker (black stripes are darker).
I'm in Ohio.
Is there a spot online for identify different breeds of bees?