A little frustration with bees.

[Geba_le]

I'm new the both forum and beekeeping.

If there is a thread specifically for beekeeping questions, Sorry! Please point me the way!

My questions (for starters) are these:
1: I keep breeding cultivated princesses with common drones, and I haven't seen sting nor wing of anything other than common and cultivated. Are Noble and Diligent bees a rare thing to happen?

2: I've tried setting up winter queens in a couple different snow covered bioms, but they haven't done anything. I've taken several different types of flowers from meadows and set them up, but it comes to nothing. Would someone please lend me some xp in this matter!

3: Do hives spawn at world gen, or can they spawn again in an already cleared out area? In short, do I have to travel farther and farther to collect princesses?

 

[MilConDoin]

1) Just bad luck. Add Soul Frames to the apiary for better mutation chances.
2) Look at the temperature/humidity and their tolerances for your wintry queen. Then look at the tab in your apiary, which tells you those values for your current biome. These have to match, before the queen will be willing to produce.
3) Only at world gen.

 

[Hydra]

1. They're not really rare no. Are you using a beealyzer? It's a must-have. It shows you which genetic traits your bees got after mating. It might very well be that the drones did end up with "Noble" traits for example but you didn't see it.

2. ExtraBiomes can mess about with those bees as they seem to only spawn in some vanilla biomes. Your best best is to focus on forest / meadow bees (and then common and cultivated and the noble and industrious branches) first though since it's easier to just have bees that all work in the same biome.

3. Only world-gen. If you have mystcraft it's easy to create a new world to raid for bees though. But especially meadows biomes have a lot of bees that are easy to find.

 

[Geba_le]

Alright, very helpful. Thank you both.
Beekeeping surprised me by being so complex. Let's hope there are worth-it rewards!

 

[Someone Else 37]

I don't know of an apiculture thread (not to mean that I know there isn't one- I don't), nor am I very knowledgeable about bees. But I'll say what I do know.

1. If you have ExtraBees, try the soul frames. They increase the chance of mutation at the cost of... something. Probably not lifespan, maybe damage or production?

2. I've no clue what flowers the wintry bees like. Does the apiary say that the bees are missing flowers, and if so, does it say what sort of flowers?

3. I think hives do spawn at worldgen (not certain, though), making princesses nonrenewable unless you can find an apiarist villager that sells them. Quarries will net you quite a few Rocky bees, though, assuming once again that you have ExtraBees.

 

[Poppycocks]

Alright, very helpful. Thank you both.
Beekeeping surprised me by being so complex. Let's hope there are worth-it rewards!

They do, but bees are more of a journey thing. Quite addictive really.

 

[Geba_le]

My next questions is about the beekeeping villager I keep hearing about. Is this a millinar thing, or is there a testificant beekeeper? I'm playing on a server, and they haven't put millinar in because of conflict issues.

 

[MilConDoin]

He is added to vanilla villages (where the once called testificants live) via Forestry. He has two beehives in his backyard and wears yellow.

 

[Hydra]

His house is also quite easy to spot because it's made of cherrywood which is yellow-ish.

 

[Geba_le]

*Does a funny little dance* Thank you! I now have winter bees happily breeding away for me.
Alright, what's the earliest update the beekeeper is in? I want to make sure I'm using the right one.

 

[Hydra]

He has been in for quite some time so if you are using a standard modpack you should be able to find him. Villages have quite a high chance of having one but it isn't 100% guaranteed.

Also: you can steal his apiaries, bees and frames without any repercussion. He'll be happy to trade with you even when you have raided his stash

 

[Geba_le]

Awesome. I'm keep my eyes out for him. What makes up a soul frame?

 

[MilConDoin]

Impregnated Frame + Soul Sand (NEI is your friend).

 

[Geba_le]

Thankyou!

 

[RetroGamer1224]

I got a bee question. Are bees more an end game type thing to do or mid game? I am pondering when to start breeding.

 

[MilConDoin]

Do it alongside, you can start early on.
You just should be able to reliably get wood and seed oil, better even if also soul sand and cocoa (for the soul frame and chocolate frame).

 

[RetroGamer1224]

Ty!

 

[Bibble]

You can start much earlier if you settle near a village with an apiarist. They'll trade oak wood for apiaries (no seed oil), and give a decent amount of proven frames (best/longest lasting) for a single emerald.

 

[RetroGamer1224]

in my SSP world I have not found a village yet with one. Which is a bit annoying as I also haven't found one frickin cactus. Oh well at least today I got a P-Body Portal Gun