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Honey dressings for wounds

16 (24.6%)

Honey-preservation of foods

19 (29.2%)

Bee Anger (if stirred up, hives stay angry for a while; see post #162)

14 (21.5%)

Sting Effects (allergies/resistance; first post)

15 (23.1%)

Equine Enmity (hives attack nearby horses (unicorns maybe); see post #23)

1 (1.5%)

Addition of Stingless Bees (less risk/less honey; see posts #78-79)

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 34

Voting closed: June 18, 2011, 06:22:09 pm

[Mister Always]

     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!!

For their stumble bumblings!

[Uristocrat]

     Ikkonoishi: "Eh hives have to be outdoors to work. I was thinking of more diverse methods of sustaining them..."

I don't think beehives should have to be. As long as they have food (and water), there's no reason a healthy hive of bees couldn't be sustained indoors. Beekeepers use sugar-water/syrup/honey to help support their apiaries during droughts, and some beekeepers in cold climates winter their hives in their homes.

So, a new use for Dwarven Syrup?  Or maybe just put them near the underground farms....

[Uristocrat]

I was looking at this page and noticed something interesting:  they say that the value of a hive depends on the season.

Specifically, they say this:

Late season swarms are of little value to beekeepers. A traditional poem advises:

    A swarm in May - is worth a load of hay.
    A swarm in June - is worth a silver spoon.
    A swarm in July - isn't worth a fly.

I wonder if that should be true of DF, too?

[Michael]

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!!

That doesn't sound even as practical as royal jelly harvesting.  Maybe if there were giant bumblebees -- but even if we handwave the aerodynamic concerns, what would those get sufficient nectar from?

Although if you were culturing bumblebees, harvesting stuff from the corpses of the bees would actually be less wasteful than destructive use of honeybees.  In nature, bumblebees only produce enough honey for immediate needs and for the queens to hibernate -- all males and workers are left to die each winter.  So a bumblebee colony produces a "harvest" of dead bees every year no matter what.

I don't think present-day humans have any use for dead bees, but some animals do.  In fact, bears do not actually like honey -- they attack hives to eat the bees themselves.

[Buzzing_Beard]

    A swarm in May - is worth a load of hay.
    A swarm in June - is worth a silver spoon.
    A swarm in July - isn't worth a fly.

The saying refers to swarms specifically (not hives). In the wild, only 1 in 10 swarms survives to become a hive. Swarms in July aren't worth trying to catch. Also, in case you're wondering, the bail of hay is worth more than the silver spoon.

[Buzzing_Beard]

     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!"

[ikkonoishi]

I've been staring at bee videos on youtube for the past 30 minutes. Now I want to play bioshock again.

[Buzzing_Beard]

Of the Nine Fingers: Those visiting apiaries may want to first remove any rings.

One relieved finger (thanks to modern tools):


EDIT: Wait... do dwarves wear rings?

[Vorthon]

Watching.

[Flaede]

Of the Nine Fingers: Those visiting apiaries may want to first remove any rings.

One relieved finger (thanks to modern tools):
"http://extremethinkover.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/david-swollen-hand.jpg"

EDIT: Wait... do dwarves wear rings?

Yeah. They wear rings made out of whole trees! (Well, they HOARD rings made out of whole trees, at any rate. Not so much with the wearing them outside of adventure mode)

[JohnieRWilkins]

Of the Nine Fingers: Those visiting apiaries may want to first remove any rings.

One relieved finger (thanks to modern tools):
"http://extremethinkover.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/david-swollen-hand.jpg"

EDIT: Wait... do dwarves wear rings?

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

[Buzzing_Beard]

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

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

[Flaede]

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

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

Something that causes swelling... bees should do this, but I bet they don't.

[Buzzing_Beard]

     Flaede: "Something that causes swelling... bees should do this, but I bet they don't."

ORLY? What do you mean by that?

[Flaede]

     Flaede: "Something that causes swelling... bees should do this, but I bet they don't."

ORLY? What do you mean by that?

I don't think syndromes can do this yet with swelling affected by rings and stuff.