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[Dame de la Licorne]

Hi!

I've embarked several times, onto temperate or cold maps and I'm not finding any bees at all.  None of my beekeepers in any of the forts (one is almost 10 game-years old) has installed a colony into a single hive, so they don't seem to be spawning after embark either.  I read somewhere (I forget the thread), that this might be due to crowding, and that the game simply has too many creatures to choose from.  Can anyone confirm?  Is there any way that I can "encourage" bees to show up?

- Dame de la Licorne

[Linkxsc]

You can pave over non honeybee colonies to reset the jumber of colonies. And then there is a chance of bees replacing it.

[PatrikLundell]

It might be sufficient to just make a dirt road over the colonies of undesirable insects. I haven't tried it, but I'd assume that would destroy the colonies as well, without requiring you to rip up the paving to make the ground available again.

[Dame de la Licorne]

Hi!

You can pave over non honeybee colonies to reset the jumber of colonies. And then there is a chance of bees replacing it.

I did not know about this, and will give it a try.  Thanks!

- Dame de la Licorne

[Goatmaan]

Id really appreciate if someone could post a link to the wiki beekeeping/ mead making section.

The wiki crashes my phones browser, a direct link might work.

Thanks for the help.

  Goatmaan

[Dame de la Licorne]

Hi!

One small problem with the suggested method posted above: I have no, repeat, "0" colonies on this map.  No ants, no termites, nada.  I'm assuming there's no hope of having colony vermin spawn (it's been 10 game years)?

Also, as requested, a link: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Beekeeping_industry

- Dame de la Licorne

[Goatmaan]

It worked!
  Many thanks,
   Goatmaan

[Goatmaan]

Is a "temperate" biome nonfreezing? Maybe its too cold for them?

In my time paving, I did notice that bumblebees, termites, ants, and honeybees ALL reappear quickly if nest is destroyed. Annoyed me greatly, just what I need 100k more things on the map!

  Goatmaan

[PatrikLundell]

If you've got no colonies at all on the map you're probably out of luck with that embark. I don't know if DFHack can be used to create an insect colony (it can create saplings and herbs).

[Dame de la Licorne]

Hi!

So since yesterday I was "on break", I ended up spending the day genning a few worlds and embarking over and over, onto different bee-friendly sites.  Here are some things I noticed:

1) Honey bee colonies were only present in shrubland/savanna/grassland-type areas (I didn't check deserts since I never use them).
2) In forests (moist broadleaf & various conifers) there were no colonies of any type at all.
3) In mixed biome embarks, the bees (and other colonies) were always in the non-forest part of the embark.

More testing is required to check reproducibility (my game is modded a little (extra vermin spiders, a few underground plants, removal of ticks, mosquitoes and lice), which may screw the generating up a bit), but it seems like something about the forests is interfering with colony formation.  Has anyone else noticed this?

@PatrickLundell,

I run DF on a Mac, so DFHack wouldn't work regardless.

- Dame de la Licorne

Edit: On my first embark this morning, I found a colony of bumblebees in the forest biome of the embark.  I guess yesterday I must have been having bad luck.

[Mostali]

I held my tongue as long as possible, apparently meaning two whole days.  But I am simply outraged that no one has yet brought up Colony Collapse Disorder as a potential cause to your issue. 

[Dwarfu]

I read somewhere (I forget the thread), that this might be due to crowding, and that the game simply has too many creatures to choose from.

That was here.

I doubt it helps in already generated worlds/sites - if they aren't there, they'll never be there - but I deleted a whole bunch of creatures for new worlds (I don't require all that clutter to have fun) and was back to happily having mead and my farmers getting stung.

[Stormfeather]

FWIW, I've been noticing this issue for a while now. I can't remember how long, but a few version numbers at least. It's been driving me, heh, buggy.


I think I probably tend to embark in forests usually (Well-wooded areas anyhow), and almost always in temperate zones. I know it didn't USED to be like this, because I remember almost always having work for my beekeepers to do in previous versions, before around v40 or so? And then suddenly I just completely stopped having any sorts of bees around.

[Dame de la Licorne]

Hi,

@Mostali: Funny, I didn't recall Toady mentioning anything in the dev-log about implementing that.   

@Dwarfu: I knew I'd seen it somewhere, but clearly forgot that it was on the bug tracker.  I searched the forums before posting this thread...  I'll add a note there.

@Stormfeather:  Glad to know I'm not the only one.

-Dame de la Licorne

[Linkxsc]

I can confirm, you can get bees in tropical moist broadleaf forests (hot, warm, and on rare occasion temperare)