Bee Details (codex)

Working With Bees

To newcomers interested in beekeeping as a hobby or career, welcome! This rewarding lifestyle is not one walked lightly. Becoming successful in the trade requires more than just tossing some bees in a box and walking away! You have many things to keep in mind when beekeeping. I'll try to cover the major points here, so you can get to work on what really matters!

Note

Bees will not produce or mate on your ship. Space stations, however, will work fine.

Species

Every species of bee has its own benefits and pitfalls that can help or hinder the beekeeper, with the end result being a highly profitable business if the keeper is savvy and keeps an eye on the well-being of his charges. To make the most out of bees, though, you'll need to be willing to experiment.

Mixing and matching species by mating a queen to a different sort of drone can substantially improve the potency of the offspring of that queen. Some bees prefer certain environments, times of day and locations. Others detest other families of bees, which means you might need to take care what you are breeding in your apiaries. Just keep that in mind.

Bee Needs

There are several things that are necessary for any bee hive to nest and produce goods. The first and most obvious is an apiary for them to inhabit. Build yourself one of these to start with (I'd recommend a larger size one as soon as you are able!). Once you've set up the apiary, the next (and most important) step is to find some bees. Wander the wilds of the universe and keep an eye out. When you see insects, pull out a trusty bug net and start capturing them. If you get lucky, you'll find yourself a Queen or a Drone! You'll need both a Queen and a Drone to get an apiary running!

Next, you'll need flowers. Bees are pollinators, which means they will seek out and gather pollen from plants before moving onward and spreading that pollen to other plants. More plants (flowers are a common favorite for most bees) means more production for your hives. Some types of flowers and plants are more appealing to certain breeds of bees than to others. This means some trial and error might be required to get the absolute most out of any bee type. Most are not incredibly picky, so any flower or plant will generally do if you don't know their favorites.

Once you've got the apiary, Queen, Drone and Flowers there is one more key piece of gear required. Frames are quite useful, acting as a platform for bees to live on and build their hive around and on. We, as beekeepers, are able to produce various types of frames through creative application of resources. Great frames can impact your bee quality quite heavily, especially when it comes time to breed them and enhance their genetic capability! Be sure to investigate the many potential types of frames available, and match them up with your hives needs and weaknesses to maximize production!

Finally, the location and time of day can make a huge impact on a hive. Some bees loathe certain environments (or can be outright killed by them!) while they thrive in others. It's your duty as a keeper to learn which environments will result in your apiaries thriving. Some bees are active only during the day (Diurnal), some are active only at night (Nocturnal). A select few are able to operate at any time.

The final thing to keep in mind is rivals: Some bees will hunt particular subspecies down and kill them in a fierce rivalry. These bees will never thrive when nearby another hive containing their rivals. They'll just kill each other off.

Microscopes

Checking in a microscope can identify the subspecies of any bee, allowing you to gain knowledge of the bees stats to help in breeding and selection processes. Each tier of microscope performs slightly better than the previous tier. The greatest available type is the Electron Microscope.

Bee Breeding and Production

Place your Queen in the first slot of the apiary. That's where she goes. The Drone goes in the second slot. Note that in a large apiary, you'll have two slots for drones. This allows you to put in two *different* drones, adding genetic variation towards the queens mate selection process. The other slot on the left side is for your frame (two, if using a large apiary). Once these slots are full, so long as the bees living there have their needs met, they will begin production. When those needs are not met, your bees will be incapable of mating. So, if you have added all that should be required and nothing is happening, it's time to check what might be up.

The first thing to check is if other bee types produce in the exact same situation. If honey bees work fine and orchid bees do not, then it could either be the time of day, or the biome, or nearby rivals that stop your 'broken' bees from thriving. Once the needs are met, your bees will start producing resources! This will happen gradually, over time, whether or not you are present. If you are off-world, the apiary will 'simulate' the work your bees would have done while away and apply it upon your return. This is both a benefit and a penalty, however, as it also applies the same data to queen age, which can kill a hive if not paying attention. Queens have a limited lifespan, and will die at the end of that time. When a queen dies, the drones have approximately 60 seconds of safety after which point they will begin to slowly die without her there to guide them. This leads to the inevitable collapse of the entire hive. Thus, the importance of breeding becomes clear.

To breed bees you will need: A queen, a drone, an apiary and patience. There are some peculiarities to keep in mind when breeding: If a brand new queen and drone are placed in an empty apiary with a frame, the queen will only mate with the FIRST drone added into the apiary. This is a selective breeding process. Once she has mated with the drone, she will then begin to produce her own stock of drones that will become her brood. The old drone(s) will be killed, being of now inferior stock. This new stock of drones will mimic the queens genome identically, producing constantly. Occasionally, a queen will birth a Young Queen. These are your goldmine, as it were. Scan the young queens in a microscope, and keep your best stock for breeding. The rest, sell at the Bee Refuge for easy profit.

Each new generation of bees has a chance to mutate into a superior breed. The chance to mutate is influenced by their species, biome, frames and luck. When a mutation occurs, the benefit is a random bonus to at least one stat. This bonus is usually significant. Through selective breeding, you can guide your bees into a highly mutative form capable of passing on to new generations. With careful planning, that could lead to enormous profits.