Hi Everyone,
So I ended up getting really into historical beekeeping methods. Originally, I had scheduled a few days to "Add Bees," but as I researched how complex the Bees and Beekeeping topics are, I wanted to deliver on the full and authentic medieval beekeeping experience. So I am going to describe what I have been up to for the last 6 weeks. Yikes...
It all started with watching a series of combined documentaries on YouTube to get a better idea about how Skep Beekeeping worked. So as an interesting learning resource, I do recommend searching for "Skep Beekeeping in the Heathland - 1978"
Between watching the videos and reading articles about Skep Beekeeping in medieval times, my desire to go all out with the beekeeping just kept growing. I wanted to show it all. The hard stuff that required specialized code is finally done now. There is still more to do, but the additional work only requires existing tech so it will be much more efficient time wise.
Here is the plan for this post:
First I will cover Bees. How they arrive, live, and move around the map.
Next is Beekeeping. This will cover the initial extraction from Wild Bee Hives all the way to producing Fine Filtered Honey from Domestic Bee Colonies.
What's Next. The Plan to get to Update 18, 19 as quickly as possible.
I hope by the end of this is it clear why Bees took six weeks. :)
1. All about Bees:
The Bee Manager:
So the Bee's turned out to be complex enough that they need their own management layer to handle how they exist on the map. Bees can fly as far as 8 kilometers (5 miles) looking for pollen and nectar, so the Colonies needed to be aware of the entire map.
Based on the map sliders, the total possible Bee population will change. Currently the Grass, Forest, and Peat Bog sliders provide a Positive influence and Mountains and Lakes are a Negative influence. So this boils down to a Global Land Fertility value for the Bees. (There is also a Local Land Fertility Value which I will go into later) So more lush maps will support more Bees.
The Bee Manager's brings new Bees to the Map if there is a low population and also maintains the Global Bee Growth Rate value, which changes with the Seasons' progress, Global Land Fertility, as well as Bee Population. So as there are more mouths to feed colonies will naturally stop growing when an equilibrium is reached. As Winter approaches, the Bees have the same problem as the Clanfolk, how to stay fed and warm. Populations will decrease to 1/5th their maximum value, but this will also allow the Honey reserves to span the Winter. This happens in nature as well.
It all starts with the Bee Manager looking for a Dead Tree.
Dead Trees:
Dead Trees will automatically appear on the Map as trees age. The Old Trees will die in Winter, so expect to notice a few new ones in the Spring when the leaves start to reappear. These Dead Trees are potential homes for the Wild Bee Swarms. (More on Swarming later)
When a Swarm finds a Dead Tree, it will establish a new Bee Colony there. Over time and based on the surrounding area, the Wild Colony will grow and Bee Activity around the Dead Tree will increase.
Wild Hives:
All Wild and Domestic Bee Colonies have a lot of stats to consider as seen above. Lets review how all of these work.
Environment:
This value determines how large a Bee Colony can grow. In Spring and Summer, there is lots of Nectar and Pollen, so the Bee Colonies will quickly grow in size, but in Fall and then Winter, the size of the Bee Colonies will decrease to allow the Honey to span the Winter.
The Global Growth value was discussed previously, but another important factor is Local Growth. This is how Fertile the local area is around the Hive itself. This means that particularly rich areas on the map will be able to support more Bee Colonies. So even if the Global Growth is low, a Hive in the middle of a field of Heather will still be able to prosper well beyond the average on the map. Placement is very important.
This circle represents the Local Bee Fertility value of the tiles within it. The circle will update its color as you move a Skep Shelter blueprint and is a good indicator of the best places to put new Skeps.
Bee Colonies are aware of the growth state and type of every tile within their circle. There are 300+ tiles that they monitor. Bees are literally aware of every blade of grass, leaf, and flower in their domain.
They are also aware of other Colonies sharing the same tile, which will lower the food value of that tile based on the relative size of the colonies. Small colonies have less impact on the tiles than large ones.
There is a synergy between the growth tiles and the bee colonies. The colonies increase the yield from the tiles by pollination within their domain, and the tiles provide Pollen and Nectar back to the Bees for more growth.
So placing Bee Skeps near farm land will be desirable. But too many will start to produce diminished returns.
Here is the same spot in Winter when there is nothing to eat but the remaining Honey stores in the Hive. The circle is now Red because nothing within the area can feed the Bees.
Now back to explaining the Colony Attributes.
Colony Size:
The Colony will grow or shrink based on the current Environment Value. When a Colony size hits the maximum value (50,000 Bees) then a Swarm may be triggered. This is how new Colonies are established. When there are more Bees than the global and local area can support, the the colonies will no longer reach full size and will no longer swarm.
Bee Activity:
Bees are most active on nice warm days. As the weather gets bad, they will stay inside the hive for protection. This means with settings that cause more rain, bees will end up being less active as well.
Bees only produce Combs/Honey when working. So the weather plays a huge role, just like hive placement. This is an indicator of the activity level for the bees but is not related to size of the colony.
For that, we need to look at Production.
Production:
The Production bar will show the rate at which Combs/Honey are being produced. The Bees are producing Raw Comb, which is what we will be extracting from the Wild Hive. (I will discuss Raw Comb a bit more later)
Consumption:
This is how much the Bees are eating. It may seem that in Winter that the consumption would be less (I thought this at first,) but it turns out that the Bees spend a lot of energy vibrating to keep the Colony warm in Winter. Worker Bees in Spring and Summer burn out after about 6 weeks, but the Winter Brood (which are much fewer) will live up to 6 months to span the entire Winter. The Colony will naturally shrink over Winter as the Spring and Summer Bees die off (this is all Simulated in Clanfolk as well)
One interesting note is that, unexpectedly, killing hives for more Honey/Wax right before Winter is actually somewhat sensible. I didn't understand this until I saw it simulated in game. But with fewer hives in the Spring, the remaining hives' growth explodes and they create new swarms to replace all those that were killed for the Honey/Wax. If the hives are all left to survive the Winter, then they ended up eating all the Honey that would otherwise be extracted and are not all that far ahead of the new Colonies from during the Spring Swarms.
Raw Comb:
This is what Clanfolk Extract from the Wild Hives. This will Destroy the Wild Hive, but Raw Comb provides both Honeycomb and Brood Comb.
Brood Comb is also a good for attracting Bee Swarms to the Skep in the Swarm Lure (which will be discussed later) But the first step in your Bee keeping empire is to extract some Raw Combs from the Wild Hives. I will review Apiculture (Bee Farming) in section 2. For now, lets look at Swarms!
Swarms:
Once a Wild Hive (or Skep) is full of Bees and Honey, a Swarm will trigger. Swarming Bees are actually quite docile. The Bees will be full of Honey and do not have a Colony to defend.
The Bee Swarm in Clanfolk is a real Unit, just like a Rabbit or Fox. When the Bee Swarm is "born" its first priority will be to find a shady tree to land under, some distance away from the old Hive. The Swarms are quite active as they travel the map, and this still picture really does not do Swarms justice. (It took quite a while to get them looking like Bees instead of some weird army of ants on the ground. The individual shadows were the key. Every Bee casts a shadow now)
Once the Swarm finds a good place to land, then it goes into Scout mode. In this mode. Scout Bees will fly away from the Main Swarm (which no longer moves, but is still somewhat active.) When the Scout Bees find a Dead tree or hopefully a Swarm Lure (discussed later) then they will inform the Main Swarm of the viable location using Nasonov pheromone. More Scout Bees will check out the new spot, and if enough Bees agree that it is a good spot and emit the Nasonov pheromone then a critical mass is reached and the Main Swarm will decide to move to their new home. They essentially vote on where to live using smell and a waggle dance.
An interesting note here, is that Lemongrass Oil can simulate the Nasonov pheromone and can trick Bees into Skeps much more easily than in Clanfolk (But there was no Lemongrass in 1300's Scotland)
Here a Swarm has landed in the Shade of a Tree Branch while the Scout Bees are sent out looking for new Hive Locations.
The Scouting can go two ways. If the Scout Bees find a good spot, then the Swarm will move there, and if they cannot find a spot, or if the map is too populated with Bees, the Swarm will move off of the map.
Here, the Scout Bees have found a perfect new location with a Dead Tree (top left) near a Heather field. The Scouts informed the Swarm and then the whole Swarm flew to their new home in the Dead Tree.
Everything up until now is happening without player intervention. This is the natural Bee simulation and will just do its thing, But, that is now how we get Honey, so lets do some intervening!
2. Beekeeping:
So now I will follow the entire process in order from discovering a Wild Hive, to extracting the Raw Combs, to Building Skeps, and finally Extracting Honey and Beeswax.
Bee Smoker:
To start our Beekeeping adventure, we will need a Bee Smoker. Pawing around Wild Hives with active Bees is not a good idea. The Bee Smoker is crafted at the Simple Kiln. When the Bees encounter the smoke they think there is a fire and then they gorge on honey and become more calm.
Finding art reference for Clay Smoking Pots turned out to be a little difficult. But from what I did find, they looked like this. Fill the belly with grasses from the wide end, light it on fire, hold the handle because the burning pot gets hot. Then blow in the wide end and point the small end at the Bee Hive.
Beatrice is now Smoking the Wild Hive to Extract the Raw Combs.
Now Beatrice takes the Raw Comb AND the Bee Smoker to the Comb Separator. As much as possible I tried to make the Bee Keeping efficient, taking multiple tools at once or using kits to prevent having to make multiple long trips across the map.
Comb Separator:
The Comb Separator is used to separate the Honeycomb from the Brood Comb. Honeycomb tends to be light in color. The Honey is usually stored in the newly created cells which are white in color. Whereas the Brood Comb tends to be much darker as multiple generations of Brood (Bee Larvae) have been reared in these cells. They were likely once used for Honey, but are recycled as Brood Comb.
Beatrice is now done. We can see the difference between the Honeycomb and the Brood Comb above.
For now, we will put the Honeycomb aside and look at the Brood Comb. We don't want to trek half way across the map and to kill the Bee Colony every time we want a bit of Honey.
Empty Skep:
The Basketry has a new option, the Empty Skep. A critical piece of the Empty Skep recipe is the Brood Comb. The Brood Comb is attractive to new Bee Swarms as it gives them a good start building the new Colony. The placement of the Brood Comb at the top of the Skep can also influence how the Raw Combs are oriented. As can be seen in the art, the Skep has Sticks pushed through in the opposite direction of the Brood Comb to provide support for the Raw Combs as the Skep is moved around.
Now that we have an Empty Skep crafted, we need to get some Bees in there... This will require the Swarm Lure and Swarm Lure Kit.
Swarm Lures:
The Swarm Lure Kit works like the Snare Kit in that it allows for construction of an object with a single haul task. As can be seen from the recipe, hauling those five items across the map one by one would be a huge time sink. The Swarm Lures are temporary structures that do not provide any shelter to the Skeps, but they are great for attracting Swarms in Wild Bee forests.
So here there is a Swarm in the tree to the bottom left that is in scouting mode. The Dead tree holds the original Hive, and the constructed Swarm Lure is on the right. As long as a Swarm Lure is within 20 tiles of a Bee Swarm that is Scouting, it will attract that Swarm.
This allows the capture of the Bee Swarms to be something that can be done without being constantly vigilant for new Swarms on the map. As long as a Swarm Lure is out there, the Clanfolk will know when it has caught a Swarm and will then work to move that Filled Skep to a new Location, and reset the Swarm Lure at the same time. So the important part here is placing your Swarm Lures well.
Skep Shelter:
The Swarm Lure is now filled, but if we want this Colony to Survive the Winter, or be moved near some crop fields, we need to move it to a Skep Shelter. The Skep Shelter provides shelter for Skeps so they can survive the Winter and also can be strategically placed near fields of Heather or Thistle patches.
Above we can also see that we are missing an Empty Skep to replace the one we will be taken from the Swarm Lure. In an effort to again keep travel time down, Beatrice will Swap out the Full Skep at the Swarm Lure for an Empty one, so it can keep catching more Swarms. It should also be noted, Swarm Lures are fully functional hives too, and their stats will be preserved as the Skep is moved to its new home.
Now Beatrice has moved an Empty Skep onto the Swarm Lure and will be moving the Colony Skep to the Skep Shelter on the right. (I made her drop the Colony Skep so it could be seen. It is covered on the bottom and the hole is plugged to keep the Colony inside)
An important note here is that Skep movement is all Priority Based. So the Skep in the lowest priority Swarm Lure or Shelter is always moved to the highest priority one. This allows you to move them around from field to field as needed. I tried to keep the Bee Keeping management as streamlined as possible since it is overall such a complex system. Swarm Lures are by default lower priority than Skep Shelters, so the Skeps get moved, but if the Swarm Lure is given greater or equal to priority as the Skep Shelter, it will not be moved.
Crop Yield and More:
Ok there is a lot going on in this picture. This is our new Bee Colony that we moved to the Skep Shelter from the Swarm Lure. Next to Beatrice at the top.
I have added a patch of tilled soil with some Beans near the hive, and within its Domain circle which can be seen as the yellow arc at the bottom right. The circle is a bit yellow because this area is not that great and it overlaps with the original Wild Hive that spawned the Swarm for the Lure.
Bees will Increase Crop Yield. Every tile in the game keeps track of every Bee Colony that overlaps with it. Each colony has a population and that is also taken into consideration as well as the length of time that the colony has been in the area doing pollination (so no tricky moving of a hive to a field right before harvest to get extra yield. I saw that one coming a mile away :)
So if we look at the top left info panel, we see a new piece of info: Bee Crop Yield: +1%
This is a new spot for this Colony, so there has not been much pollination done yet. Over time and with a large colony, the maximum bonus reaches 50%, so it is very worthwhile to keep bees. I opted for Yield instead of Growth Rate changes because it made more sense to me since the Bees are handling the Pollination.
Another thing so look at above is the Environment Score. It is not a full bar in this case. That means this area is not productive enough for this hive to Swarm. There are just too many bees in the area compared to available food, so the Hive will never reach Maximum Size. The Wild Hive is competing a little too much in this area. On the other hand, if we don't want more swarms, this hive is placed well to aid in pollenating that Field.
On the other hand...
Now I planted a whole bunch of Wheat and Berry Bushes around this same Bee Colony. As can be seen, the circle is now Green, and the Environment value is much Higher. Almost High enough to allow another Swarm.
Auto Harvest:
Another thing to notice here is the Auto Harvest toggle. Bee Keeping is quite automated, with the main decisions being smart Swarm Lure and Skep Shelter Placement. Also managing the Shelter priorities can be fun when trying to maximize crop yields. By default, Auto Harvest will be on. Auto Harvest also takes into consideration the current Season and will always leave enough Honey for the Colony to survive the Winter.
The rule in the Geoponica (which is a famous 10th century book on agriculture and another good reference) was taking 2/3 of the honey twice a year, but only 1/10th of the Honey before Winter. I follow similar rules with the Auto Harvest.
Before I get into Honey and Beeswax Extraction, there are a couple more cool things to discuss.
Bee Boles:
Honey theft was a booming industry in medieval times. Honey and Beeswax were very desirable trade goods but also one of the only sources of a sweet treat. So to combat the thefts, and to provide shelter for the skeps, Bee Boles were developed.
Here is Beatrice's humble home. It has Bee Boles facing in each direction, and the one by the front door is active with a Skep inside. These exist mostly for historical accuracy, but they are also great space savers.
Winterizing:
Skep Shelters and Bee Boles can also be Winterized. This closes in the Skep to provide extra insulation over the Winter. This is a task that the Clanfolk must spend time doing, so it may be best to move all the Skeps into Bee Boles in late Autumn before it gets too cold. Then the Winterizing process can be carried out much closer to home.
Honey and Beeswax Extraction:
We made it!
Honeycombs and Brood Combs are processed at the Honey and Wax Extractor. The Honey and Wax Extractor is a complex crafting station that can be configured in multiple ways to produce the desired products. I tried to simulate the actual processes visually using these different configurations. I will describe them below.
Honey Extraction (Top)
Honeycombs are tied up in sack cloth and crushed over bowls. After the initial hand squeezing, they are left sitting over the bowls on a rack to let gravity do some work. The squeezed and drained Honeycombs are then heated in water and most of the wax seeps out of the sack cloth bag. When this mixture cools, the wax settles to the top and can be reheated and melted into forms. This creates the Crunchy Honey and Beeswax Ingots seen on the right. Crunchy Honey and Beeswax at this stage are not finely filtered so there are bug parts in it, but that's extra protein!
Brood Combs (2nd)
Brood Combs can also have their Beeswax extracted. In this case the extractor does not show any Honey collection, but instead shows more of the Wax collection process.
Fine Honey (3rd)
Fine Honey is a Trade Good and will be used in more Advanced Recipes. This is warmed Crunchy Honey that is passed through Linen Cloth as a filter. The warming is done double boiler style which is why the water is shown over the little oven.
Fine Beeswax (Bottom)
Fine Beeswax is also a Trade Good and will likely be used in Candle Making in the future. The Fine Beeswax also has a Thistle embossed on it because that looks nicer :)
Skep Smoker:
As mentioned a while ago, sometimes it makes more sense to kill the entire Colony in the Skep instead of just harvesting a smaller amount of the Raw Combs. This is where the Skep Smoker comes in.
The Skep Smoker uses Brimstone Smoke (Sulfur Smoke) to kill the Brood within the Skep. Brimstone can naturally be found near Iron Veins so it will likely become a byproduct of Iron Mining once Beekeeping has been discovered. It will also be a Trade Good. I have not implemented the Brimstone yet, but will soon.
Summary:
So that is the current state of Bees and Beekeeping! I hope it is more clear why this took me 6 weeks. I probably delved a little too deep into Beekeeping for most people, but I decided if it was going to be done, I was going to try to deliver on the whole Beekeeping experience.
Yes this is the Beavers all over again. :)
3. What's Next:
Most of the remaining Bee tech will be related to Candles. There are some lighting issues to resolve, but Candles are much more similar to the rest of the game than the Bees were. Mead will also come in the future, but I am going to hold off on that in an effort to get people playing with this sooner.
I am still working on a plan on how to deliver the Beekeeping without the full Secondary Settlement system. I may try to tie up just the Beekeeping portion of Secondary Settlements and then make it very clear that there is more to come with "The Brown One" storyline. I may also make a "The Beekeeper" start Scenario that gives much less starting coin to allow the Beekeeping to be tested sooner.
There is still a lot of tuning and bug fixing to do, but I am close to a Testing Branch version. In an effort to not get sucked into another major side quest like the Bees, I am going to wrap up the work on the Bees and then push them for Update 18, instead of having people also have to wait for me to totally finish everything to do with Secondary Settlement storyline as well.
So I am thinking Update 18 will be about this new Bee Tech and maybe a bit of Secondary Settlement, and then Update 19 will be about the fully working Secondary Settlements. I am very cognizant of how much time this is taking and appreciate your patience once again!
I will endeavor to not get distracted by any other shiny things until the Secondary Settlements are complete.
I am going to get back to work on this now. :)
Andrew (Blorf) Hume MinMax Games Ltd.