I've started on bees for the first time, and have managed to complete a few branches, but I'm a bit confused in regards to branches that again branch off at some point. For example, there are a bunch of branches which depend on a cultivated bee, of which I only have a single princess and many drones. Would I therefore have to restart the whole cultivated process every time I start a new branch? I constantly find myself lacking enough princesses to continue, and often have to go back to the start. I understand the functions of extra bees machines, but I don't understand how they'd be able to get me a purebred princess of any species I'd like. Also, are there any tricks to fixing those pesky hybrids which seem to never want to become pure?
Bee breeding help?
- Thread starter Breigal
- Start date
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Just put in a sould frame before you put the princess/queen in with the drone. It raises the mutation. But you should grab more queens man.
What do you mean grab more queens? Do you mean I should start a new branch with multiple princesses? As in I should start everything over but with multiple mundane bees?
You should get more queens before you do anymore mutating. You're gonna want a good supply of them and the drones. The machine's can isolate certain "traits" that you want from a specific bee ( i.e. fast worker speed, High fertility, etc.). You'll want to get a high fertility, so that you can get more queens/drones. That way, when you start mutating, if you go down a branch you didn't want, you have enough queens as a back-up. Pm me if you have anymore questions, I have dealt with a lot of these mods in FTB.
I'm no expert on bee-breeding, and I found myself facing some of the same questions as you. Here are some pointers based on my own muddling about.
The short answer to your question is, yes. If you need a new branch, you have to start with a princess, but of course, you can start with whatever species you have. You don't necessarily have to go back to "the beginning", if you have appropriate middle-of-the-line bees.
As for extra bees machines, the Isolator actually allows you to extract the species of a bee, as a serum. You can then inject that species serum onto any other bee. (Disclaimer: I only tried this once and it was on a drone, not a princess, but it worked just fine). Note that the extra bees machines are pretty expensive in terms of materials and mainly... power. Boy do they need power. So just be ready for that. You'll also need a good supply of drones to toss into the genepool to provide liquid DNA, if you choose this route.
If you want to go with old-fashioned breeding, then yeah, get some more princesses/queens by raiding more hives and so on.
One other possibility is, and this is more of a question than an answer... in theory, if you have two bee species that don't produce a "known" mutation, and you interbreed them, is there just a random chance (over time) that the offspring will be one or the other?
For example, if I have a forest princess and a bunch of noble drones, those two don't produce any combination normally, so if I just keep breeding them together, is there a chance that over time, I'll eventually end up with a noble princess? Something I might test out myself...
The short answer to your question is, yes. If you need a new branch, you have to start with a princess, but of course, you can start with whatever species you have. You don't necessarily have to go back to "the beginning", if you have appropriate middle-of-the-line bees.
As for extra bees machines, the Isolator actually allows you to extract the species of a bee, as a serum. You can then inject that species serum onto any other bee. (Disclaimer: I only tried this once and it was on a drone, not a princess, but it worked just fine). Note that the extra bees machines are pretty expensive in terms of materials and mainly... power. Boy do they need power. So just be ready for that. You'll also need a good supply of drones to toss into the genepool to provide liquid DNA, if you choose this route.
If you want to go with old-fashioned breeding, then yeah, get some more princesses/queens by raiding more hives and so on.
One other possibility is, and this is more of a question than an answer... in theory, if you have two bee species that don't produce a "known" mutation, and you interbreed them, is there just a random chance (over time) that the offspring will be one or the other?
For example, if I have a forest princess and a bunch of noble drones, those two don't produce any combination normally, so if I just keep breeding them together, is there a chance that over time, I'll eventually end up with a noble princess? Something I might test out myself...
Say you have a marbled princess and a collection of ecstatic drones (two races that don't mutate further when put together). You want to get an ecstatic princess and are happy to lose the marbled princess in the process (as you can get plenty more from hives).
You breed the marbled princess with one of the drones. The resultant princess will either be a marbled/ecstatic hybrid, or a ecstatic/marbled hybrid (remember, the secondary trait won't show until you put it through a beealyser).
You breed this new princess with another of the drones. You'll either get another marbled/ecstatic or ecstatic/marbled hybrid (in which case you breed with the next drone, and so on), or you will get a pure ecstatic princess (which is what you want).
In fact, if you have a stack of drones, breeding a given princess with that stack over and over will eventually result in a princess which has every single one of its traits matching that of the drones in the stack - at which point it'll start producing more drones that can be added back in to the original stack, 'cause their traits match too. In this way you can very quickly convert "beginner" princesses to "advanced" princesses.
You breed the marbled princess with one of the drones. The resultant princess will either be a marbled/ecstatic hybrid, or a ecstatic/marbled hybrid (remember, the secondary trait won't show until you put it through a beealyser).
You breed this new princess with another of the drones. You'll either get another marbled/ecstatic or ecstatic/marbled hybrid (in which case you breed with the next drone, and so on), or you will get a pure ecstatic princess (which is what you want).
In fact, if you have a stack of drones, breeding a given princess with that stack over and over will eventually result in a princess which has every single one of its traits matching that of the drones in the stack - at which point it'll start producing more drones that can be added back in to the original stack, 'cause their traits match too. In this way you can very quickly convert "beginner" princesses to "advanced" princesses.
Actually, it's sorta worth adding that you can do the same thing regardless as to whether your "unwanted" race and "desired" race might mutate (though it may take a little longer if they do). So long as you have enough drones of the desired species, breeding them with a given princess enough times will convert it, full stop.
One more question... I've managed to breed the perfect production imperial drone and princess, so is there any easy way of transferring all these features to another species, or would I have to inoculate each trait once again? I know that I can just inoculate a new species into the offspring drone, which will have all the good features, but I can't think of any way of doing this for the princesses, because if I did I would just lose them.
Find a new hive princess and then use your perfect drones to clone it into a perfect princess using the method outlined above by Bomb Bloke; then inoculate one drone and this new princess with the new species serum. This will give you a perfect pair for the new species.
Oh I see, so if I breed the hive princess with the perfect drone enough times, then the princess will eventually gain those attributes?
Yes, but that's not what he's telling you to do.
If you take your "good" drone and inoculate a race over it, then breed your princess with that drone, then you no longer have a good drone of the correct race. You'd need to inoculate another one, and another one, and so on, until the princess fully converts, and then you may still need to inoculate the race into yet another drone before you can start breeding in earnest.
So instead just fully inoculate one drone and one princess with the new race, and off you go. You seem to be under the impression that that inoculating a princess may cause you to lose it. You're mistaken in this: So long as the purifier machine refuses to work on your serums any further, they're perfectly safe to use. It's the isolator, which creates serums, that randomly and unavoidably kills bees.
(Note that a serum marked as "excellent" isn't necessarily safe: The purifier must specifically tell you it can't be improved further before you know it's safe to use.)
If you take your "good" drone and inoculate a race over it, then breed your princess with that drone, then you no longer have a good drone of the correct race. You'd need to inoculate another one, and another one, and so on, until the princess fully converts, and then you may still need to inoculate the race into yet another drone before you can start breeding in earnest.
So instead just fully inoculate one drone and one princess with the new race, and off you go. You seem to be under the impression that that inoculating a princess may cause you to lose it. You're mistaken in this: So long as the purifier machine refuses to work on your serums any further, they're perfectly safe to use. It's the isolator, which creates serums, that randomly and unavoidably kills bees.
(Note that a serum marked as "excellent" isn't necessarily safe: The purifier must specifically tell you it can't be improved further before you know it's safe to use.)
That's exactly what I did, I fully inoculated one imperial princess and one imperial drone, and now they are producing other perfect drone offspring. My issue though is that to try to make a perfect industrious princess for example, I would need to inoculate my perfect imperial princes with an industrious serum, but then I would no longer have the imperial princess at my disposal, as it's been converted. What I'm asking is if there is any other way to do it without having to tediously inoculate each princess with every desirable attribute.
Yes, refer to this post, and use that technique to turn any unwanted princess into a clone of your current imperial princess. Go scoop up some more if you don't have any handy.
Once you've done that, inoculate the new imperial princess and a spare imperial drone with the industrial race, and you're sorted.
If you have excess hive space, it pays to use it to turn other extra princesses into further clones of your current "good" ones, regardless as to whether you need them at the time. You'll then have decent princesses readily available to inoculate new races over as you uncover them.
Once you've done that, inoculate the new imperial princess and a spare imperial drone with the industrial race, and you're sorted.
If you have excess hive space, it pays to use it to turn other extra princesses into further clones of your current "good" ones, regardless as to whether you need them at the time. You'll then have decent princesses readily available to inoculate new races over as you uncover them.