Yes you will want to have at least one of each in the beginning. Not only do they make pollen/jelly for more alvearies, but they are also excellent at producing honey that you are going to need quite a bit of for alvearies and bealizing for future breeding.
Clockwork engine is a good idea. It's "powered" by being right clicked on to wind it up, and when it's heated up the highest it can go without hurting you, it's a pretty good output. Little pricey, but worth it in my opinion
Clockwork is from forestry if I am not mistaken, so thats not really an option in Horizons.
To be honest that was what confused me the most when I looked at this new pack. What exactly would I use to make power to few "conventional" mods?
You must pay for Minecraft to be able to play Minecraft.
Yes you have to pay for Minecraft since FTB(and the army of modders) is just adding to the game(In a spectacular way!), not making the game them self. So you are still playing the game developed by Mojang. But as far as game prices go, Minecraft is extremely cheap! And I can guarantee that you can get almost endless amounts of fun and entertainment out of Minecraft and added mods.
Indeed and just think of all the money you saved on sitting at your PC playing MC instead of going out wasting your money on.. well everything else
Its an extremely good deal 
Yes, update the launcher and it will be top modpack on the list.
Since... Today? or yesterday depending on where you live I guessWait what? I thought the old launcher couldn't handle 1.6 packs, and the new launcher was being delayed without an ETA? Since when do we have a new launcher update AND 1.6 packs?
Ahh lol, I assumed it was another post
sorry about that.
