Bay 12 Games Forum

That one asian-ladybug, with its relatively small jaws, could bite into the "thick" skin on my fingertip.
So I think the larger mandibles of thousands of stingless bees would be of concern to anyone knocking over a hive.

I don't know, bugs can have pretty strong mandibles. I had an experience with a ladybug who was angry at my finger.

A hive of honeybees can make more than one bottle in a year (100's of pounds per year per hive).
Any comments or criticism for my suggestion to be able to store up honey as a "liquid"?

+You could pour tons of it into a river as a divine offering (a la Ramses III).
+You could vanquish your foes in a wave of sweet gooey overkill.
+I love the thought of having sticky dwarves and weapons acting as suspended flow-markers.
+Things submerged in honey are preserved and, after a hundred or so years, mummify.
     +A funeral-ritual for your heroes? A troll-trophy for the great hall?

DF Honey/Water Mixing Idea: Honey is heavier and thicker than water so maybe have it ignore water when it's
     iterated. The water could then treat the honey as solid land (for volume preservation).
     Honey cells surrounded by enough water, or less running-water, could become water themselves.
     EDIT: Honey and magma are both viscous fluids (and could use the same dynamics code). If honey meets magma, magma wins.
     If enough honey dissolves in standing water, the water becomes hydromel which eventually becomes mead.

A nuc (pronounced "nuke") is a very small beehive (hundreds of bees, not thousands).

     Uristocrat: "...what's up with the different kinds of honey in a hive?"

Honey colour is determined by nectar source, which can change throughout the season.

     NW_Kohaku: "...royal jelly, a special hormone-laden nectar..."
     NW_Kohaku: "Queen cells are the only ones that contain royal jelly (except for what's being fed to the queen
     herself to keep her ovulating)..."

All baby-bees get fed royal jelly, but it's the queens that get submersed in it.
And technically, it's a head-secretion not a nectar.

     Uristocrat: "...cutting one of a queen's wings off to keep the bees from swarming"

When bees swarm, the old queen and most of the workers turn the hive over to a new baby queen.
If a queen can't fly away, she can't start a swarm, and a new baby queen can't take over.
However, the bees will still produce "supersedure" cells if their queen gets old or dies.

Foulbrood is bad news for baby bees. It darkens the brood comb, but not the honey.

     JohnieRWilkins: "Goblins wear loads of rings. Is that fact applicable to fortress defense?"

Gangrene is serious enough, but fortress defense might require more expediency.

     Buzz'n Beard: "...domesticated for their Bumble-Fuzz!!"
     Michael: "That doesn't sound even as practical as royal jelly harvesting."

It gives them something to be besides inferior honeybees, but you're right, it's fanciful.

Buzz'n Beard: "Bumble-fuzz socks anyone?"
Boromir: "Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is foly!"

     Mister Always: "They're also fuzzy and petable."

From bumblebee.org:
     "Thick hair can act as insulation keeping the bee warm in cold weather."
     "When flying a bee builds up an electrostatic charge,...grains of pollen that are not touched by the hairs can jump
     a few millimetres to the nearest hair."

Here's an idea, maybe in the DF world, rather than having bumblebees as wax and honey producers, they were instead domesticated for their Bumble-Fuzz!!

     Mister Always: "Do you like bumblebees?"

I haven't worked with them, but I like them. The foragers have that abrupt staccato way of flying around, and their queens are humongous!