I tried engaging the transition bot and it just echos whatever I say. Does that mean I'm too late? Or that the bot is temporarily offline?
yes, that means you were late for the fourth round. The transition bot will be up and running again for the fifth distribution which will take place in May
I did receive bytes, but no blackbytes. I was under the impression it would be included after claiming bytes. Did I have to make a separate claim for the blackbytes?
From
https://byteball.org/ :
In the 4th round, which is scheduled for the full moon of April (April 11, 2017 at 06:08 UTC), we'll distribute 62.5 MB for each 1 BTC of linked balance and 0.1 new byte for each 1 byte you already hold. To participate, install the wallet and chat with the Transition Bot that will help you link your Bitcoin and Byteball addresses.
Maybe I missed the part where I should also link blackbytes addresses? How do I do this for the next round?