How exactly do I get into bees?

[Benie76]

Pack: Direwolf20 1.3.1

So, I'm thinking about getting into bees. I don't know much about it, but it seems very popular. Yet also feels tedious. Though in the pack I use, GenDustry was added.
My friend claims this makes bees easier to deal with. But again, I don't really know where to start. Should I start into Forestry or start into GenDustry?

Friend said all I need is a scoop, an Aviary, and grow combs. Surely it's not this easy. I mean, don't you have to find specific bees in specific biomes, and also have to make the bees happy or something?

 

[darkeshrine]

Bee's are really easy once you get the hang of it. It does seem overwhelmingly complex, but don't panic and read Beekeeping 101. Also, NEI is your friend. If you don't know how to breed a certain bee, just look it up in NEI.

Edit: Also, If you really want to learn bees and breeding, then I would suggest refraining from using Gendustry. Gendustry is fairly resource intensive and basically just easy-mode.

 

[rhn]

Pack: Direwolf20 1.3.1

So, I'm thinking about getting into bees. I don't know much about it, but it seems very popular. Yet also feels tedious. Though in the pack I use, GenDustry was added.
My friend claims this makes bees easier to deal with. But again, I don't really know where to start. Should I start into Forestry or start into GenDustry?

Friend said all I need is a scoop, an Aviary, and grow combs. Surely it's not this easy. I mean, don't you have to find specific bees in specific biomes, and also have to make the bees happy or something?

I would also recommend against Gendustry. At least for the first time trying it out. Forestry/ExB are among the highest quality mods I have ever played(and still enjoy playing). I find it sad that people (IMO) ruin the experience just to get easier access to the end goal.

It is not that hard to get started out, as long as you have your wits with you. The bee breeding mechanics are simple and have roots in simplified RL biology. So if you know a little bit about that you can easily figure things out with a bit of experimentation.

 

[pizzawolf14]

Gendustry was made to make multiple journeys through beekeeping more bearable. For your first dabble, I'd go vanilla forestry, and use gendustry once you feel like you have mutations and trait genetics down. As a biology enthusiast (not environmental science *vomits all over water cycle diagram*), I found bees a comforting experience, even more so now that I can inject them with proteins and genetic material. Because of this, I can't speak for how hard it is to learn bees from scratch, but I recommend the beekeeping 101 link that was previously posted.

As for specifically how you should start, that's up to you. First, of course, you should make apiaries and get a solid drone sample of each 'hive' bee (the ones that you find in the world). Then, you should go for imperial and industrious bees for the ambrosia and the importance of royal jelly and pollen in most bee-related recipes. After you get automated apiaries slaving away to get a good bit of honey, wax, jelly, and pollen, you are pretty much set to go for any branches you want.

 

[gattsuru]

My friend claims this makes bees easier to deal with. But again, I don't really know where to start. Should I start into Forestry or start into GenDustry?

Friend said all I need is a scoop, an Aviary, and grow combs. Surely it's not this easy. I mean, don't you have to find specific bees in specific biomes, and also have to make the bees happy or something?

I'd recommend starting with native Forestry. GenDustry takes more and higher-tier resources, along with significant amounts of power, and while it does make things simpler, this is overkill early on and can get in the way of understanding Bee basics. GenDustry can also screw you over if you're not careful about Swarmers, so can sometimes be very bad to try before understanding mechanics.

Forestry-style Bee breeding itself is fairly low-investment. You'll want a Scoop to collect a few bees from hives, a few flowers or bonemeal to make flowers, and the infrastructure to make Apiaries, meaning at least a Squeezer and a Carpenter, as well as some Seed Oil and an engine of some kind. It does take a /lot/ of wood, since you'll often want to build a surfeit of frames while using Apiaries and will want to make a lot of Apiaries. Basic BuildCraft piping can also be helpful, although not necessary.

You can get started with just a single princess and drone, although to get every bee species you'll need to collect several different types (at least one each of Rocky, Forest, Meadow, Jungle, Desert, Swamp, River, Snow, later on Nether and End hives, also the chest-drops of a Valiant and Steadfast). Because of how princesses can't be readily multiplied, with the exception of a special difficulty setting added for modpacks like Agrarian Skies, down the road you'll usually want to get at least a couple dozen princesses of any kind, but that's really not necessary at the start. I'd recommend getting started as soon as you have a few Forest and Meadow princesses.

Most starting bees will operate as long as the Apiary can see the sky, there is a compatible flower in range, and it is daytime and not raining. Later bees get pickier about temperature, biome, flower type, and other weird stuff, but this isn't too important while working your way to Industrious, Imperial, and Icy.

 

[rhn]

One of the most important realisations you need to know about beekeeping is how to "copy" princesses:
When you crossbreed bees to get a new species you end up with only one pair of bees. This is not enough for production and further crossbreeding and it would be a PITA to have to crossbreed to get more all the time. So you need to copy the new princess that you just bred.

The way you do this is by first getting the new princess and its drones stable. This means that they need to have exactly the same traits on both bees and both sides of the trait "tree". Now you let the princess produce a lot of drones(they now stack as long as they are not scanned!).

When you have a good bunch of drones you can add them to another princess. Usually you have tons of some other kind of princesses(usually Rocky from quarrying). Now let this "junk princess" breed with this stack of drones over and over again until it turns into an exact copy of the drones(and thereby the princess you just crossbred before). And Voilà! you have copied the princess!

When I breed a new species I usually let the princess breed a lot of drones. Then I take 13 drones at the time and pair them up with a Rocky princess(13 is usually always enough to ensure full copy). I let them breed in an automated apiary until there is 20 drones in the apiary(this means that the princess have fully been copied and started producing the right drones). I then do this at least 4 times until I have 5 total of the new species for safe keeping/future crossbreeding.

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

Do the "vanilla" Forestry way until you get to Imperial and Industrial, do Extra Bees to get up to a mid tier Bee(maybe Fiendish to make phosphor to make lava), then say "screw it I've got the T-Shirt" and use Gendustry to get any other resource bees you need(glowstone, nether quartz, yellorite etc).

As for how to start, get an apiary, put it in a plains biome and start producing Forest and Meadows drones by just letting the bees run and die, after that combine a Forest and a Meadows to get a Common and away you go.

 

[Zarkov]

If you just want to try getting some new bees from the existing ones (that can be obtained using a scoop) and produce some honey etc., I would recommend using Forestry.

If you have infrastructure for power and resource gathering set up, and are looking to get some specific bees for resource production (i.e. fairly deep in one of the branches), I would recommend Gendustry.

Gendustry greatly reduces tedium and randomness of bee breeding, for a cost in power and resources. In my opinion, it makes the bee breeding mini-game much more entertaining.

 

[malicious_bloke]

Aside from one playthrough in 1.6.4 where I checked out gendustry, I haven't used bees since Unleashed.

Magical crops sort of superceded it as the "LOL make everything renewable" mod of choice due to the insane throughput you could get in Monster.

Bee breeding is a fun mechanic to get into though.

I am planning to go back and see what's new in 1.7.10 this time, even if I have no MPS to add my apiarist's protection to this time

 

[asb3pe]

1. Obtain "Hive" bees, make Apiary
2. Cross-breed Hive bees until you get Common-Cultivated-Noble-Majestic-Diligent-Unweary-Imperial-Industrious branches complete. See youtube for basic tutorials on this, such as GenerikB's series.
3. Get a lot of Pollen and Royal Jelly from your Imperial/Industrious bees
4. Make a lot of Alvearies
5. Make all the Genetics machines, including 5 Incubators in sequence: Water -> Incubator 1 -> Liquid Growth Medium -> Incubator 2 -> Bacteria -> Incubator 3, 4 and 5 -> Enzyme, Polymerizing Bacteria, Bacteria Vector. Must add sugar, wheat, bonemeal and blaze powder at various points along the way. See wiki if confused. http://binnie.mods.wiki/wiki/Genetics
6. Make Ethanol using saplings in a Forestry Still.
7. Using NEI or a good wiki, start making all your 100's of different bee species by cross-breeding.
8. Set up a production line of Isolator - Analyzer - Sequencer. Isolator needs Ethanol.
9. When you obtain a new bee species, run extra drones thru the production line to identify and collect Genes. When identified, they will go into your Gene Database. Build a Lab Stand to put your Database on for easy use.
10. Run all excess "junk" drones thru a Genepool machine, required Ethanol. Collect Raw DNA (liquid) output in a tank or drum. You should have tons of excess, useless drones by now. You will need a lot to make DNA.
11. Make Polymerizer - Inoculator production line. Polymerizer requires Raw DNA and also Polymerizing Bacteria. Inoculator required Bacteria Vector.
12. Once you've collected a lot of different Genes, put a Hatchery in one of your Alvearies and obtain some Lavae.
13. Make a Serum Array.
14. Make a "Super Bee" - go to your Gene Database and select the Best Gene in each category and right click the Serum Array on the Gene. Species is irrelevant, but I use Cultivated Larvae since they already have "Shortest Lifespan" by default.
15. Once you have all 13 Genes to make a bee (or 12 since you probably won't need to change the bee species), place Serum Array in Polymerizer. Gold Nuggets speeds up process. Must have one charge for each larvae.
16. Place charged-up Serum Array in Inoculator with larvae. Wait approx. 2 hours and you will have your first "Super Bee" drone!
17. Make multiple Super Bee drones.
18. Use apaiary and soul frames to convert a random princess into a Super Bee princess using your newly made drones.
19. Make multiple copies of your Super Bee
20. Throw all your bees away, keep only your Super Bees.
21. Apply species to Super Bees using Steps #12-16 above. Take drones, make Princess of that species. Cross-breed a Princess and a Drone to get new species. This will go quickly since all Gene traits will be identical except for species.
22. Repeat until you have all the bees! When you get better Gene traits off some of your new bees, update your "Super Bee" with them occasionally.

I hope that helps! LOL I've been doing bees forever, I love em. No Gendustry for me, sorry, don't even know the mod.

Oh I forgot, you'll also need to do Forestry trees as well, because you'll need a lot of Seed Oil, and breeding Chestnut Trees is the best source. Same process as bees, kinda sorta, only different. LOL

My Super Bees are Cultivated Species, with Shortest Lifespan (longest is no good, takes too long to cross-breed), Fastest Production, Fertility 4x, Temp Tolerance "Both 2", Humidity Tolerance "Both 2", and Yes for all the Page 2 traits in the Beealyzer - Nocturnal, Diurnal, Tolerant Flyer, Caver. Flower type is your own preference, and Effect is usually None except for Chestnuts you might want an effect such as "Ripening" on your bees so your Chestnut trees ripen faster. Same for Territory and Pollination, useless unless you are pollinating trees with your bees.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I say forget bees. Trees are where it's at. I like to just grab something that runs in the biome, and start breeding trees for better looking wood.

Either way, I suggest starting early and automating them. Use TE ducting, or even BC pipes work if you have a couple diamonds and samples.

The other thing I suggest strongly, is a mini-AE system. Just an ME chest and a little power works, or a storage drive and Terminal. Being able to search your bees, and store princesses in stacks is invaluable. I don't connect it to the automated system, otherwise it ends up full of ejected drones and combs, but it helps to have those you bring back from expeditions in the world all in one place.

 

[epidemia78]

Pack: Direwolf20 1.3.1

So, I'm thinking about getting into bees. I don't know much about it, but it seems very popular. Yet also feels tedious. Though in the pack I use, GenDustry was added.
My friend claims this makes bees easier to deal with. But again, I don't really know where to start. Should I start into Forestry or start into GenDustry?

Friend said all I need is a scoop, an Aviary, and grow combs. Surely it's not this easy. I mean, don't you have to find specific bees in specific biomes, and also have to make the bees happy or something?

I tried bees too. Talk about boring, I dont see the appeal. I like magical crops though..

 

[rhn]

I tried bees too. Talk about boring, I dont see the appeal. I like magical crops though..

Bees are very much an acquired taste. Just like GT etc.
But I think it is important that people try it out in its pure form before they start watering it down etc. Because it is a really good quality mod(s) for those where it hits the right taste.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I think that the crux of the matter, is that they are boring, because you're meant to let them go on in the background while you do other things. Most people though dive straight into them, and try to focus only on them for the 'duration' of the mod, and that bores them.

Covert Jaguar had the right idea in his Dark Tower Series. (Which is still awesome.) He set them up, checked on them once or twice an episode, and ignored them the rest of the time. And it worked, he got through them without having them take over parts of the series and render it boring.

 

[rhn]

I think that the crux of the matter, is that they are boring, because you're meant to let them go on in the background while you do other things. Most people though dive straight into them, and try to focus only on them for the 'duration' of the mod, and that bores them.

Covert Jaguar had the right idea in his Dark Tower Series. (Which is still awesome.) He set them up, checked on them once or twice an episode, and ignored them the rest of the time. And it worked, he got through them without having them take over parts of the series and render it boring.

Yeah you should definitely not attempt to do bees as the only thing you have going. At least not until late in the process(it is possible with a steady source of Oblivion frames). Set up some for mutation, copying etc. and then go build/mine/whatever for 10-30 mins.

And make sure(once you got a firm grip of things) that you have several things "cooking" at the same time. I always have 2 sets of 5x automated Apiaries copying newly bred bee species, crossbreeding to get a new species in a couple apiaries(later an Alveary), inoculating bees with ExtraBees machines(though gather this mechanic have changed) and possibly copying more bees to have some for production.
So I recommend you set aside quite a bit of space for "workspace".
Example:

Spoiler

Left to right: Apiaries to finish off Queens to Princess once they are done(copy is complete and they are ready to get stored away etc.), Alveary(mockup on this old pick) for breeding, automated Apiaries for copying newly bred species, Apiaries for manual breeding/trait adjustments and lastly automated Apiaries for mass copying to the far right.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Is that a spiral staircase in the middle?

 

[epidemia78]

Well some of the automation Ive seen people do with bees looked like fun which is why I caved in and tried it.

Bees are very much an acquired taste. Just like GT etc.
But I think it is important that people try it out in its pure form before they start watering it down etc. Because it is a really good quality mod(s) for those where it hits the right taste.

I think I was using Gendustry. I played with it to the point where I figured out what was expected of me and I stopped right there. I really love seeing my golems working so Id rather just continue using magical crops. Although Ive been thinking of ways to complicate the process with minetweaker.

 

[rhn]

Is that a spiral staircase in the middle?

If you mean the black and white column thingy, then it is a Arcane Elevator lift.
I kinda designed it thinking I needed an up and a down lift. Then much later when I got around to making the actual Arcane Elevators it turned out they had been changed from since I last used them(now shift click to go down, no breaking fall if you step in under the block) So now it is just 2x Arcane elevator shafts lol