Strategy for Rocky Bees

[netmc]

How do you all handle breeding rocky bees? They start out at 1 drone, so you can't breed more without using either templates or the higher end extra bees machines (serums).

I tried using a marbled princess that I had previously bred with a wintery drone for the 4x offspring. The only problem is that when I try breeding together the rocky/marble hybrid princess and drone, I invariably lose my rocky princess to a mutation and end up with a common/marble hybrid. This has happened to me a few times already. Am I having bad luck, or do the marbled or rocky strain mutate easily? Should I try with a different 4x offspring princess?

With 4x offpsring, I figure I can breed the awesome +/- 2 traits and flyer, cave, and nocturnal back in once I have stable line.

 

[DoctorOr]

I got all the way to resiliant before being able to build the tier3 advanced genetic machines, but was able to keep the temp and humidity both_2 and nocturnal, cave and flyer even with the single drone. My secret? 12 princesses and re-enforcing the 2x fertility that will come in from the other lines you use to mutate. Some generations, some of those 12x princesses would go without a drone while waiting for another one to cough up 2 suitable drones.

 

[whythisname]

I think using Cultivated bees is best if you want to breed the rocky ones with another type of bee. The reason being that rocky + cultivated won't mutate into anything else (unlike marbled + rocky which can mutate into common bees).

Personally I'm a bit in the same corner as you are atm. I have 1 rocky drone and princess and I'd hate to waste them. That said, with a quarry you can gather quite a few rocky drones/princesses, because as far as I know it picks up the bees from any hives it finds.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Cultivated is a dominant trait, you'll have an easier time combining with a recessive type of bee that has a higher drone count.
Don't use any 'wild' bee (meadows/marbled ect) as you can mutate into common.

Also there's a chance you'll discover a new type, I accidently kicked off a certain branch or 2 do doing this kind of thing.

 

[Quesenek]

Invest in the extra bees machines trust me they take so much stress and hair pulling out of bees they are sooo worth it. With the machines you can get the fertility with no risk to the good bees.

 

[netmc]

good idea with the cultivated. I have some junk cultivated bees I can use (missing fast trait) I should be able to get 4x drones bred into that cultivated line pretty easily.

I am no where near being able to create the machines. I don't even have the gold or diamonds to create TE conduits and cells let alone any bee machines.

Thanks.

 

[Carrington]

Invest in the extra bees machines trust me they take so much stress and hair pulling out of bees they are sooo worth it. With the machines you can get the fertility with no risk to the good bees.

This. Even fullering the line with a recessive high-drone like Imperial can lead to annoying side effects like additional unwanted products clogging up automation.

 

[netmc]

Cross breeding with a cultivated line worked wonders. I have a rocky bee strain with all the tab 1 traits back in, and now I am working on tab 2. From there, I can go on and start finding the other lines. Thanks.