Whispers of engineering a rivalry between two augmented 'warlord' princes with independent hives ultimately had to be rejected due to a lack of resources. With the Hivemind only having two hives, two queens, and a little over a thousand drones to work with, a project of such a scale was deemed infeasible at the current time.

Some attention was directed towards further evolution, though. Adding stronger forelegs and chitinous barbs to the warriors was easily done, and it has increased their effectiveness. There was also effort devoted towards mimicking the venom of spiders and snakes, as well as on the webweaving ability of spiders, but for now those have yet to fully meet the desired results. A subset of worker drones has adapted to generate proteins that turn their saliva into a sticky goop, and a matching ability to spit this fluid a short range with some accuracy. While that initially seemed like a failure as they lack the ability to draw out threads of the protein and finely weave it like spiders do, it's still somewhat useful. They are able to chew bits of wood and other organic matter, allow it to mix with their adhesive saliva, and then regurgitate it as a sort of papery material that is useful for construction. Their spitting might also be useful in combat situations as a distraction or as a means of constructing sticky traps; we could consider adapting this new worker type to fulfill a supportive role to the warrior drones much like the proposed smaller and better armored "bait" warriors, or we could instead evolve them to gradually become more like spiders. Or we could perhaps just accept their current state and use them for construction workers.

One of the newly enhanced princes left the main Hive, accompanied only by a few bodyguard warrior drones. It attempted to hail and observe the various bees that it saw, but most seemed to just buzz by obliviously. Eventually it grew frustrated and took a more direct approach, marching to the nearest beehive and sitting underneath it. For a long time the prince looked expectantly at the beehive, occasionally clacking its mandibles together and gesticulating (in what it hoped was a non-threatening way) with its various limbs. A few bees hovered closely to investigate this strange visitor, and after some more time passed, one of them returned into its hive. A few moments later, dozens of other bees emerged. They began to slowly circle around, with about seven of eight of the little buzzing things edging closer and closer to the prince. The bodyguard warriors were apprehensive and their instincts were screaming to bite at the bees, but sensing that such an effort would have been futile, the prince made them stand down and offered no resistance as the bees grabbed onto his bulk and slowly lifted him into the air, up to the hive. They set him down upon a small branch up in the tree just next to their hive, and then from out of the beehive's opening peeked the head of one massive bee, their queen!

Much clicking and clacking and buzzing followed. Without any mutually intelligible language, communication was very difficult and slow, but the queen bee seemed to be of a reasonable intelligence and to have some desire, or at least receptiveness, towards taking the time to communicate. The queen bee gestured repeatedly in the general direction of our central hive, towards the berry bushes that we planted and which were just now beginning to bloom for the first time!