Industrial-Scale Bee Breeding: Seed Oil Bottleneck?

[Eunomiac]

I currently have thirty Alvearies, each with six Frame Housings kept stocked with Impregnated Frames (via Routers). Obviously, using Impregnated Frames over Untreated Frames presents difficulties, chiefly among them the absurd amounts of wood (1k+ logs---not planks---per day, it's insane) and Seed Oil I need.

I've managed to get the wood under control with mutant Silver Lime-Sequoias and turtles, but I'm having problems keeping up with the Seed Oil.

My current supply comes from two Alvearies dedicated to Farmed Queens for their Seed Drops, and a max-size Forestry Multifarm Orchard sporting 9 Chestnut-Sequoia hybrids (extra-large Chestnut Trees with lots of leaf blocks). I laid out the Orchard fairly carefully, am reasonably sure I've positioned the trees such that I have a maximum number of leaf blocks, and the trees are highest Yield.

Unfortunately, this is not producing enough Seed Drops or Chestnuts to maintain my Seed Oil supply.

Frankly, I'm surprised the Farmed Queens aren't doing more---there are two of them, and compared to what some of my other bees are doing, they're really under-performing: I'm running my entire base off of a single Refined Queen (enough to power two 36 HP Steam Boilers with Fuel, with plenty left over for storage), and my Lapis Bees have given me 17k in just a few days. So I don't know if more Farmed Queens is the answer. I'm close to filling my chunk-loading cap, so I'd rather not build another Orchard. And I don't want to downgrade to using Untreated Frames unless absolutely necessary (it's less fun that way, and I've done so much to set up the infrastructure for Impregnated Frames).

So: Any ideas on how I can turn my Seed Oil production to 11? I've considered crossbreeding Silver Lime-Sequoias to bear Chestnuts for the Orchard instead, since their smaller trunk size and greater height should provide more leaf blocks. I've also considered converting the Orchard to a Gourd Farm, to grow Melons. Obviously Melon Seeds pale in comparison to Chestnuts, but would the quantity of Melon Seeds I'd get make up for their shortfall in quality?

 

[Barbarian Kitten]

What about a non-bee related solution? Are you running Ult or 1.5.2? If so I'd do some MFR harvesters and planters. Perhaps a tall auto-melon farm?

 

[Runo]

I think you should set up more, but maybe smaller, multi farms. I like multi farms, they're unique, pretty, and quickly swappable, plus the tree breeder's support, but they have their issues. The main one here is that they don't cut down the leaf blocks, they decay naturally, so they can get taken by other growths or block other growth. I am also not sure if the multi farm will grab leaves that extend beyond its radius.

Maybe set up an unmanaged multi farm in fruit mode, making sure to space the trees out well in order to maximize leaves. I'm not sure if this is significantly slower than managed chopping but its worth a shot.

Also, if you can manage to get bone bees, I think the MFR fertilizer machine will work next to a multi farm. This will drastically increase growth, but may not increase seed yield as much as expected.

 

[MilConDoin]

Have you thought about using a nicely sized field of xycraft soil with melons and pumpkins? One row every other soil a pumpkin stem, next row every other soil a melon stem (shifted by one compared to the pumpkins), then pumpkin, then melon, ... harvested via an MFR harvester? This setup should have the highest yield of stuff.

 

[snooder]

Simple, don't use impregnated frames. Unless Sengir has changed things recently (I'm still on 1.4.7) impregnated frames give you the same production benefit as the normal frames you get from sticks. They just last longer.

If you want more seedoil, you might try going with a golem melon farm + lily pads of fertility. It's stackable, so you can fit more farms in the same general space as your multifarm. I haven't personally, because I use untreated frames for my alvearies.

 

[arentol]

What you are doing here is roughly the equivalent of a company with a full parking lot doubling their number of employees then wondering why they don't have enough parking spaces for everyone anymore.

And as with that situation you already know the answer... Increase production.

Given that the Farmed Queens are under producing, add another Chestnut orchard and your problem is solved. If that puts you far enough ahead, get rid of the Farmed Queens and put something more useful in their place.

 

[Shakie666]

I assume you have used the extrabees machines to give your farmed bees fastest productivity, and that you're also giving them enough frames for 100% production chance? If not, do that. Otherwise, I can only suggest what arentol said: more of everything.

However, an easier alternative might be to simply used untreated frames. Since they last 1/3 as long impregnated frames, you would need about 3k logs per day - a decent sized MFR tree farm can produce that easily, particularly if used with EBXL redwood trees (though with said trees, you'll need to dive into the configs and increase the height at which farms will search for wood to cut).

 

[Poppycocks]

I assume you have used the extrabees machines to give your farmed bees fastest productivity, and that you're also giving them enough frames for 100% production chance? If not, do that. Otherwise, I can only suggest what arentol said: more of everything.

However, an easier alternative might be to simply used untreated frames. Since they last 1/3 as long impregnated frames, you would need about 3k logs per day - a decent sized MFR tree farm can produce that easily, particularly if used with EBXL redwood trees (though with said trees, you'll need to dive into the configs and increase the height at which farms will search for wood to cut).

Or use several.

 

[Loufmier]

since you use 6 frames per alveary i can assume, if i`m not mistaken, you are running 1.4.7 version and have redpower. so you can farm flax for string, and mfr(if you have it) ic2 fertilizer farms, can yield you a lot of string and wood, so untreated frames FTW.

 

[ThemsAllTook]

My current supply comes from two Alvearies dedicated to Farmed Queens for their Seed Drops, and a max-size Forestry Multifarm Orchard sporting 9 Chestnut-Sequoia hybrids (extra-large Chestnut Trees with lots of leaf blocks). I laid out the Orchard fairly carefully, am reasonably sure I've positioned the trees such that I have a maximum number of leaf blocks, and the trees are highest Yield.

From what I've been able to determine, yield affects the number of fruits/nuts dropped per leaf block (may only apply to apples and cocoa beans), and sappiness affects the rate at which fruits/nuts ripen (may only apply to cherries, walnuts, and chestnuts). If your chestnut trees don't already have highest sappiness, I'd say try breeding it into them and see if it helps your harvest.

 

[Mero]

First I would suggest multiple multi-farms.
Then I would suggest a golem powered melon farm.


The only real limit is the amount of space you are willing to devote to the production of seed oil.

 

[isnowcrash]

I had a very similar setup with 30 alvearies on my last map. I used a 5x5 flax golem farm with a lilypad of fertility for string, Steve carts tree farm for wood (16x16), and a max size multi-farm with sweet chestnut trees for seed oil. I actually had to build a quantum tank for all the seed oil i was getting and the logs actually had the hardest time keeping up.

 

[thijser]

Have you considered making you main wood farm capable of producing chestsnuts? You can have little turtles partrol the bottom sucking up any chestnut that might fall down.

 

[Yusunoha]

First I would suggest multiple multi-farms.
Then I would suggest a golem powered melon farm.


The only real limit is the amount of space you are willing to devote to the production of seed oil.

did you know that the harvester from MFR can use IC2 crops aswell? if you setup a MFR harvester with a quite large radius, and you put an automatic crafting table inbetween (or whatever auto-crafting method you prefer) you can get a much better yield of seeds from it then the vanilla-golems method.