Bee keeping not working

[EricBuist]

Hi,

I am trying to bread bees from Forestry mod and this is always failing. First, it is hard to find bees of various species. I could only get modest and meadow bees. Most of the times, queens produce nothing. I read yesterday that newer versions of Forestry "nerfed" the bees. What's the point of having bees producing nothing? Putting frames in the apiaries helped, however. But I would like to get more than just honeycombs, so I experimented with cross-breading, getting an Arid bee out of a modest and a meadow. But the But the Arid bee requires another flower type than cactus but still lives in the desert! I tried to find which flower type it needs, but there is no table on the wiki, nowhere; Google is returning random results making no sense. So I would need to proceed with trial and error.

This may be another mod blocking the way, making things harder, same thing as GregTech disabling some basic recipies.

I think the FTB modpacks should configure these mods by default to NOT block other mods. Otherwise, entry in the mods is very hard since there is no accurate instructions anymore to work with them. I know it is possible to disable mods, keeping just the ones I need, but this is an easy thing only in single player. In multiplayer, that requires too much coordination, since each player has to have the same mod set as on the server.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Yippy Kai Aye]

You may already know this but you need to start with forest and meadow bees. Unfortunately you started with (IMO) one of the worst breeds. Take advantage of the frames you can get especially the soul frames for mutations. If you want to know every mutation just click on the link. Be warned it can take some of the fun out of it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...29DN0cyam45Mlo5N3c&f=true&noheader=true&gid=0

You'll be producing combs and good stuff in no time.

 

[EricBuist]

But what if there is NO forest bee on the map? I have to start with a new map? These mods are starting to be quite annoying, requiring all sorts of items that are NOT there! Thanks for the link. It shows all possible species, although without their requirements (flower, biome). Note also that Common princess is even not available in the items from NEI. Seems something really went wrong in the interoperability of Forestry, Extra Bees and some other mods in FTB Ultimate. Anyway, I guess I just have to give up on this mod and focus on the mods working correctly and not requiring special items that would be found only on a fresh new map. Thanks.

Note that I considered the possibility of creating Mystcraft ages in the hope that this would generate new maps with the missing items, but all the ages I managed to reach were corrupt.

 

[tedyhere]

Ok just because you haven't found a certain bee doesnt mean it isn't there. I play ultimate and have just started up bees in a new server and so far I have found marbeled, rocky, forest, and meadows...I also saw some watery hives...they are there. Just because you haven't found the hives yet don't call the mod broken.

Plenty of folks are breeding bees just fine in the ultimate pack.

Oh and I believe you cannot find common bees in NEI because Sengir didn't want them cheated in. Oh and make a Beealyzer, it will make your life so much easier. Takes a little honey to analyze a bee but than you know everything about it..

 

[noskk]

The only hive that's harder to spot is the tropical bee hive, the other are easy, if there's no forest bee hive in that forest you can go and find other forest (should be easy to spot when you are near to one at the minimap), btw how will the the newer version of forestry nerf bee? any link you can provide?

Also, go find a village with 2 apiary in it, pray that you will find a common queen inside (I found 1 in a village near my base XD).

 

[tedyhere]

You will get common bees eventually just by breeding your forest and meadows bees alot. Hunt for hives at night they light up

 

[MilConDoin]

For some database about bees look at http://mc.nessirojgaming.eu/bees
Warning, each page shows all possible mutations for that bee, so my wiki is spoiler-heavy.

Looking at the Arid Bee: It doesn't need any flower, it should be happy without any kind of flower close by.

 

[Yippy Kai Aye]

For some database about bees look at http://mc.nessirojgaming.eu/bees
Warning, each page shows all possible mutations for that bee, so my wiki is spoiler-heavy.

Looking at the Arid Bee: It doesn't need any flower, it should be happy without any kind of flower close by.

It might still want the cactus from the modest bee.


Creating mystcraft ages is a good idea even if they are unstable as long as the instability does not cause nausea. Run around for awhile and get some bees.

 

[Adonis0]

There are only five types of flowers that bees use
Jungle: Vines or ferns
Lily pad: self explanatory
Cactus: again self explanatory
Flowers: Any type of normal vanilla flower, dandelions and roses you can't go wrong with
Nether flower: nether wart

EDIT: Just found out about a reeds one too, so I'd be guessing that's sugar cane

 

[Squigie]

First, you do not need forest bees to start. Forest and meadows (and marbled) are the easiest species to use to reach your first goals, which should be common and cultivated, but they can be done with any of the wild hive bees, including modest.

Also, all of the wild bees are in your world, you simply haven't found them yet. Meadows, modest and marbled are the most commonly found. Forest hives hang on the underside of leaves; tropical do the same, at the tops of giant jungle trees. Wintry hives spawn with snow on top, but like most hives they emit light and so can be easily spotted at night. Rocky and nether hives are not rare but only turn up in great numbers with a quarry as they are usually encased in stone or netherrack, respectively. Water hives spawn underwater, often quite deep.

If you haven't already, get a beealyzer. Without it you're utterly blind, only seeing the active species gene and nothing else. Your arid bee is likely a mishmash of meadows, modest and arid; analyzing is the only way to find out what you've really got. For now I would shelve the arid branch as they don't lead to anything particularly useful unless you really want a mob spawner.

 

[Exasperation]

There are only five types of flowers that bees use
Jungle: Vines or ferns
Lily pad: self explanatory
Cactus: again self explanatory
Flowers: Any type of normal vanilla flower, dandelions and roses you can't go wrong with
Nether flower: nether wart

EDIT: Just found out about a reeds one too, so I'd be guessing that's sugar cane

There are also bees that want wheat and redstone torches, and ender bees use the dragon egg.
In thaumic bees, there are bees that want bookshelves, magic flowers (cinderpearl/shimmerleaf), and nodes (sometimes specific types of node).

 

[MilConDoin]

There are only five types of flowers that bees use
Jungle: Vines or ferns
Lily pad: self explanatory
Cactus: again self explanatory
Flowers: Any type of normal vanilla flower, dandelions and roses you can't go wrong with
Nether flower: nether wart

EDIT: Just found out about a reeds one too, so I'd be guessing that's sugar cane

http://mc.nessirojgaming.eu/bees/index.php?title=Flowers
There are a few more

 

[Adonis0]

There are only five types of flowers that bees use
Jungle: Vines or ferns
Lily pad: self explanatory
Cactus: again self explanatory
Flowers: Any type of normal vanilla flower, dandelions and roses you can't go wrong with
Nether flower: nether wart

EDIT: Just found out about a reeds one too, so I'd be guessing that's sugar cane

There are also bees that want wheat and redstone torches, and ender bees use the dragon egg.
In thaumic bees, there are bees that want bookshelves, magic flowers (cinderpearl/shimmerleaf), and nodes (sometimes specific types of node).

http://mc.nessirojgaming.eu/bees/index.php?title=Flowers
There are a few more

And I thought the flowers were a straightforward part of bees ._.

 

[Hydra]

@The topic starter: bees require a very hefty time investment and are by no means a solid source of materials. So if trying to find a forest bee is already too hard you might want to skip this part of the mod altogether.

And I thought the flowers were a straightforward part of bees ._.

Rocky bees require stone as a flower. So as long as there's smoothstone nearby you're good. Nice!

 

[Maldroth]

Here is some advice for getting setup with Bee breeding. Much of this has already been said above.

1. Grab a variety of bees from the world. Most common you will find are Meadows in redish hives and Marbled in white hives they both use flowers and operate in most biomes. Marshy bees are in swamps in a green hive, and Modest bees are in deserts in yellow hives. They are more biome dependant so save these for later specialty breeding.
2. Make or take/trade for apiaries in villages. If you make apiaries you will need seed oil which you can make from wheat seeds or melon seeds which is slightly faster.
3. If you need bee products you will also want to make frames. Normal frames don't last long but can always be made. Impregnated frames last longer but require seed oil. Proven frames can by trades from villagers and they last a really long time. If you want combs you NEED frames.
4. Make Common and Cultivated bees. I always run pure strains of a bee a few times to build up a stock of drones. About a dozen work. I also breed bees in pairs. That way I get more chances at the traits I want. Cross two hive bees together and eventually they will mutate. To help see what you are getting make a beealyzer. This takes honey drops. Keep mixing until you see Common show up and try to stick commons together. Cultivated comes from mixing a Common and a hive bee. Sometimes this comes very easily.
5. Some tips. You can turn a princess into another type of bee by breeding her with several drones of the desired type. So say I have 12 Cultivated drones and I have 1 Meadows Princess. I keep breeding her with a Cultivated Drone and eventually I get a Cultivated Princes just like the drones. They is a very easy way to get more of a certain type later.
6. Hybrids. You can mix certain traits of bees into a stable breed. For instance Cultivated bees are the fastest workers for basic bee products but don't work at night. If I bring in a Rocky drone I can work on breeding in the Nocturnal trait so they work at night. You just need to watch what traits the hybrids get and keep rotating those into the mix. Eventually you can end up with Cultivated bees that also have Nocturnal. The Beealyzer is essential for this.

That is the basics. You can get into the Extra Bees machines that can isolate certain traits and put them into other bees rather than using the hybrid method but you need a lot of Buildcraft power in MJs for those machines and a lot of bees to turn into Bee DNA.

I hope this helps you get a better idea of how to get started with bees and get your first couple of breeds going. Once you have mastered these skills you can then make any other breed needed.

 

[Delcar]

7. Hunt for beehives at night, they give off light, so you can even see them on your mini map.

 

[Maldroth]

7. Hunt for beehives at night, they give off light, so you can even see them on your mini map.

Yes you make a good point. Getting beehives at night can be easier. And as someone said earlier Forest bees and Tropical bee hives are hanging under trees rather than on the ground. I know I try to make a point to grab at least two Tropical Princesses early so I can get their Stringy comb. You use this to get silk wisps which you use to make the apiarist's clothes. By the time you have enough for a full set you should be ready to breed the really dangerous bees like the Sinister and Austere lines.

Right now the hardest bees to work with have been getting into the minerals line. The low offspring count makes it very hard to breed them in naturally. I'm going to have to resort to genetic machines to up that for me.

 

[Delcar]

If you have wintry bees, there's your source for fertility; whether bred in conventionally or at the end of the expensive machine chain...

FWIW I've scraped the resources together for the machines, and I am glad I did.

 

[noskk]

Yep, wintry bees for maximum fertility serum, and then inject the bees you want to mutate with it so you get more chances of excess mutated bees to be isolated for serum.