Things are 'relative'. Not only the general temperament of your hive but weather and conditions. Here's the basic thing: you have 30,000 sisters all living together. Do you think there will be good days and bad? They don't like bad weather, cloudy, cold, dearths (no pollen/nectar available). One day you can open your hive in shorts with no issue. Another day you can be 10 ft away & get stung.
For mowers and tillers, remember that bees are deaf but they HATE vibration. I've gotten within 20 ft of my hives without ticking them off. Remember bees don't fly after dark, so that's a good time to mow/weed wack closer. Not at dusk (I made that mistake once), I mean dark & not with lots of lights. I also know people who can mow within feet of their hive without issue. Just make sure the outgoing grass/exhaust does not blow toward the hive... they really hate that. And don't touch/knock the hive or stand, that's vibration. In my case I keep my bees maybe 700 ft from my house, but I have the land.
You don't 'acclimate' a queen, at least not 10 vs 8 frame. If you have a small colony, you can start with a nuc (5 frame). But that's more for guys doing this on a larger scale. Usually your 'space' will mean stacking more boxes vertically. So you start with 8 frames in 1 body, when that is 80% full you put another 8 frame body on top of it. Nobody 'starts' with an 8 frame the 'expands' to the 10 frame. Get one or the other, they are a fixed size. As I said, I think you'd like the 8 frame more. To see how the 3 sellers' bees are: go to their place and watch them work their hives. You'll see quickly how gentle they are.
Another key thing: ask each what do they do to treat their hives. There are 2 main issues: SHB (small hive beetle) and varroa mite. I don't treat, that's the perfect option (my bees are extremely hardy). SHB isn't that big an issue, easy to 'treat' with a trap that isn't a chemical issue. Varroa is the issue. Some people treat regularly with some nasty chemicals. You can ask this by phone of each of the guys. You'll want 2 things: gentleness and hardiness.
Some bees have a natural ability to control varroa/SHB. They call it 'cleaner' bees, they 'clean' each other and the hive. Some go too far: bees will actually drag out their baby larvae in cleaning the hive (yup, exactly the 'toss out the baby with the bathwater'). People that treat their bees with chemicals & such are actually making their bees weaker as well as their SHB/varroa stronger.
