New to bees

[Cosmology27]

I have a very simple question. I've read the wiki, but don't see what I need.
Is there any way to get princesses other than from wild hives? I know you get one princess after the queen dies, but this means you can only have as many princesses as you've harvested from hives. Is there a way to get two princesses from a life cycle or something? I only ask because there are so many different types of bees, and it'd be painful to raise up multiple of an end game type bee.
Thanks for the help

 

[Larmonade]

Princess + Drone = Queen. After the queen finishes her life cycle, she will spawn ONE new princess and a number of drones. There's no way yo increase the number of princesses you get. For every alveary or apiary that you want to have bees in it, you will need a princess/queen, and that means going out and searching for bees in the wild.

Edit: With some of the late-ish machines you get for genetically tweaking your bees, you will eventually get the ability to change the species of a drone or princess with a "serum" that's extracted from other bees. If you get a really awesome bee with combs that you really want, take some of the drones, stick them in the Isolator, and eventually one of the serums you get will be the serum for that species. Fill the serum with liquid DNA, purify it to Excellent quality, and then stick it in the Inoculator with the princess/queen/drone you want to have that species until the machine can't inoculate it any more. Presto! - New princess of a different species (at the cost of a chunk of Liquid DNA, several bees spent getting the serum, and quite a bit of patience)

Edit again: alternatively, if you get a bunch of drones of a species you like, you can stick the whole lot of them in an alveary/apiary with a queen of a species you don't need, and eventually (after a dozen or so generations) the princesses being produced will be the same species as the drones.

 

[Cosmology27]

Wow thanks for that! This will be amazingly helpful!