Bee Breeding

Bee breeding is a mechanism, introduced in Forestry, used to breed new types of bees from old ones. Bees can be harvested from beehives, which can be found glowing around the world, using a Scoop, Mining Laser, Vajra Power Tool, Quarry or Wand of Excavation. Each has a default "species," depending on its location. Each Bee has "chromosomes," that carry its traits, such as its species, and its other attributes. These traits can be combined to get desired breeds. For instance, if you have a slow, industrious breed, you can crossbreed it with a faster cultivated breed, to get a new breed with both benefits.

Mating[]

To start the breeding process, place a princess and a drone into an Apiary. They will be replaced with a queen of the same type as the princess. Over time, the queen will die, and at the end of its life, it will produce offspring. These new bees will be dependent on what drone you paired with the princess to begin with. Specific combinations give a chance of getting a specific resulting breed. The following summarized some of the possible combinations.

Breeding can be automated using build craft pipes. A video can be found on the "Bees" page.

Genetics[]

Bees have something resembling an actual genome complete with "chromosomes" and "alleles". Most traits of a bee are freely inheritable between species, only a few defining ones (produce, temperature and humidity) are tied to the species of the bee.

Bee breeding Combinations
Mate:	Meadows	Forest	Common	Cultivated	Diligent	Noble
Meadows		Common
Common	Cultivated	Cultivated
Cultivated			Diligent/Noble
Diligent	Rural			Unweary
Unweary					Industrious
Noble				Majestic	Ancient
Majestic						Imperial
Modest				Sinister
Sinister				Fiendish

More Bee breeding Combinations
Mate:	Modest	Sinister	Fiendish	Austere	Tropical	Steadfast
Modest		Frugal	Frugal
Fiendish		Demonic
Frugal	Austere
Tropical				Exotic
Exotic					Endenic
Valiant						Heroic

More information about mutations and different bee species can be found on the Bee Species page.

#	Chromosome	Description
0	SPECIES	Species determines name, appearance, produce and preferred temperature and humidity for a bee. It also determines the genetic makeup a bee receives when it appears via mutation or as a world drop.
1	SPEED	Production speed
2	LIFESPAN	Lifespan
3	FERTILITY	The more fertile a bee is, the more drones a dying queen will spawn on average.
4	TEMPERATURE_TOLERANCE	Every bee has a preferred temperature. Only if the bee tolerates other temperatures than the preferred can she be transplanted to other climes.
5	NOCTURNAL	Nocturnal bees will work day and night
6	-	{Unused}
7	HUMIDITY_TOLERANCE	Climate is defined by temperature and humidity. This determines what other humidities the bee can tolerate apart from the preferred one.
8	TOLERANT_FLYER	Only strong or tolerant flyers can work in rain.
9	CAVE_DWELLING	Only cave dwellers will accept to be enclosed and not require a line of sight to the sky.
10	FLOWER_PROVIDER	Bees require flowers. Most just want a nice yellow or red flower in the vicinity, some will want something closer to home though (cacti, jungle plants) and a few have very exotic tastes.
11	FLOWERING	This determines the rate at which a bee will pollinate flowers around the apiary.
12	TERRITORY	Any bee will be protective of her territory, which also determines the area in which she'll search for flowers.
13	EFFECT	Several species have an effect on their environment which is determined by this chromosome.

Each of these chromosomes consists of a primary and a secondary trait. Usually the primary trait will be the active one, except if the trait on the primary is recessive and the secondary dominant, in which case the secondary trait will be the active one.

Inheritance[]

Inheritance follows basic Mendelian genetics. More information can be found here.

Mutation[]

Inheritance alone will not get you the higher end species of bees in Forestry. Mating the right combination of bee species has a chance of giving you a possibly better breed. A soul frame increases the chances of mutations but makes the bees lifespan 75% shorter for that generation. Some mutations can also only occur in the right biome. Hell bees will obviously only rarely occur in the overworld. The right combinations can be discovered using available tools, such as the Beealyzer. Here are a few tips that may help:

?	Biome
Mixing naturally occurring bees may give you something even more common.
Crossing something common with naturally occurring bees might cultivate it.
Cultivated bees can branch off into at least three different directions.
Sinister bees are cultivated but also modest. Jungle climes also seem hellish.	X
Heroes lurk in dungeons and have found refuge in forests.	X
The frugal and austere like it hot.	X
Beware dragon.
Rural are diligent and plain.	X