Preferred lifespan for production bees?

[Mayhem48]

I've managed to breed/inoculate Nocturnal, Flyer, Cave, and Fast into my bees and am now wondering if there's a preferred lifespan for bees intended to be used just for their products? I understand the benefits of Shortest lifespan with High fertility for mutation, but does lifespan effect production at all?

Obligatory mod pack declaration: Mindcrack 8.1.1

 

[nethervvoid]

I would think if you auto-recycle your bees back into the aviary then it wouldn't matter.

 

[Damoklesz]

I don't think it does matter.
Shorter lifespan means more liquid DNA production (assuming multiple drones are produced).
Longer lifespan means slighly less time wasted while the new cycles start.

 

[slay_mithos]

Well, the only thing lifespan does is to make the queen alive more or less time.
It doesn't directly affect production.

That said, when the queen dies, there is some down time before it is able to produce again, so I tend to choose the longest life span for my production bees.

But then again, that doesn't produce as much drones, as the life cycles are longer, so that is less DNA that you could make too.

Basically, longest life span produces a little bit more (less down time), but also produces less drones, so it all comes down to whether you need drones or not.

Edit: got ninja'd^^

 

[Mayhem48]

Thanks for the info, everyone; that confirms my suspicions. I'm swimming in DNA and voiding drones at the moment, so I may shoot for Longest on most of my bees and keep a few at Shortest for the drones.

Thanks again!