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[Lytha]

I have a bunch of questions about beekeeping in Dwarf Fortress.

Firstly, I learned the hard way that you should only have one beekeeper dwarf, not many. If you have many, then one might become permanentely stuck at a "install colony in hive" job: For instance, he wanted to split Hive A to install a colony in Hive B; however the other beekeeper did rip Hive B apart in the mean time to harvest some honey. Also, the beekeepers tended to get stuck when they tried to install colonies from a wild bee hive on both Hive A and Hive B. So, one beekeeper it shall be. Fine.

However, I still have questions. In particular: Mead.

In z-kitchen, I can't forbid or allow cooking with Mead. And I observed two mead pots in the stockpile for a while, that means. for a couple of years: the contents didn't seem to be ever consumed by anyone at all. But of course, I did have other drinks available at the same time.

So, do dwarves actually drink this stuff or is it just an export item for the caravans?

[Funburns]

Firstly, I learned the hard way that you should only have one beekeeper dwarf, not many. If you have many, then one might become permanentely stuck at a "install colony in hive" job [...]

You may already know this, but the "permanently" suggests this could still be helpful. You can manually free up a dwarf from a job in the [u]nits menu with the [r]emove command. This has saved me many a beekeeper until I, too, discovered that beekeeping bug.

Wish I could answer the original question, though. Sorry.

Edit: Beekeeping seems to be a very slow source of value, food and booze creation and a high micromanagement sink at the moment, so I've avoided making any mead at all for these reasons.

[Joshua IX]

Firstly, I learned the hard way that you should only have one beekeeper dwarf, not many. If you have many, then one might become permanentely stuck at a "install colony in hive" job [...]

You may already know this, but the "permanently" suggests this could still be helpful. You can manually free up a dwarf from a job in the [u]nits menu with the [r]emove command. This has saved me many a beekeeper until I, too, discovered that beekeeping bug.

Wish I could answer the original question, though. Sorry.

Edit: Beekeeping seems to be a very slow source of value, food and booze creation and a high micromanagement sink at the moment, so I've avoided making any mead at all for these reasons.

But... but... but...

It's automated :p

[Lytha]

Yeah, I freed the stuck beekeepers a couple of times. The problem was that one of the other beekeepers would then try to do the job, because I couldn't cancel it from the list.

What helped was to find the building that was causing the hiccup, let's call it Hive A: Here, remove the "install colony in hive" task for a minute, then add the task again. This fixed the stuck beekeepers. Until I did that, one beekeeper would sit on Hive B (which had been ready to be split, but wasn't anymore, because Urist McSecondaryBeekeeper had harvested the honey and gelee royale in the mean time), waiting for the hive to become ready to be split again. One dwarf sitting for half a year at Hive B, waiting for it to become ready to be split, is impractical.

At larger amounts of hives, this problem would occur again, and again, and again; and fixing it every time would just give me a headache. So, my personal solution is to have just one beekeeper from now on. It's the right job for my expedition leader who does all the fanciful jobs anyway.

[BulMaster]

Is bee-keeping still an invite for goblin sieges?

[Jeoshua]

Honey isn't as valuable as it was anymore.

I kinda liked how you could "stir up a beesnest", so to speak, with the Goblins that easilly.  Not so much anymore ::shrug?::

[Lytha]

So, do you know if the dwarves drink the mead or if it's just good for donating it to the caravans?

Don't tell me that I am the only one with like 30 hives around...

[BurnCruise]

I had 20 or so hives in .21. I couldnt press the honeycombs until i removed them from a stockpile though. I think they do drink the mead, but its pretty low on the list of alcohol they choose first (though i doubt there is an actual list like that).

[Naryar]

Beekeeping is not worth it, apart for roleplaying.

[Lytha]

Frozen donkey milk + rock nut cake + honey + honey. Ice cream with nuts.


Beekeeping is worth it when the lavish meals suddenly look appetizing.

[Jusman]

Honey isn't as valuable as it was anymore.

I kinda liked how you could "stir up a beesnest", so to speak, with the Goblins that easilly.  Not so much anymore ::shrug?::

I thought it was the bees that created so much wealth, since there was so many and each bee is worth 1

[Aramco]

Firstly, I learned the hard way that you should only have one beekeeper dwarf, not many. If you have many, then one might become permanentely stuck at a "install colony in hive" job [...]

You may already know this, but the "permanently" suggests this could still be helpful. You can manually free up a dwarf from a job in the [u]nits menu with the [r]emove command. This has saved me many a beekeeper until I, too, discovered that beekeeping bug.

Wish I could answer the original question, though. Sorry.

Edit: Beekeeping seems to be a very slow source of value, food and booze creation and a high micromanagement sink at the moment, so I've avoided making any mead at all for these reasons.

But... but... but...

It's automated :p

Yes, well, so is this.

[REACTION:KILLDAWRFA]
[NAME:kill a dawrfa]
[REAGENT:A:1:DWARF:KILLIT]
[PRODUCT:NOTHING]
[AUTOMATIC]

[Urist Imiknorris]

You forgot [AUTOMATIC]. 

[Aramco]

You forgot [AUTOMATIC]. 

H... how... how did I... how did I forget the whole point...?

[foolishsensei]

While we're on the topic of bees, I've noticed a tag that reads No outdoor access on some of my hives.
Is this serious? Should I be worried?