The Bee Dungeon

The next few days were a bit of a grind for Belissar. First, he had to separate all the different parts of the flax from each other. He stored the seeds, since they could be processed into linseed oil. That could have uses in his woodworking and his fire traps, or even in his diet if he had surplus. Then he had to separate the useful fibers from the straw and inner pitch. Both were steps that were noticeably difficult for a lone person who lacked the normal tools one might use for the job.

And the little scrapes and scratches he got processing the flax with his hand also did not improve his opinion of the task.

And when that was done, it would have to retted and dried and scutched...

Belissar was starting to feel that the cuts in his tunic weren’t that big a deal after all. He may not have had many fond memories of his neighbors...but he did miss being able to trade wax and mead for already processed cloth.

He broke up the monotony with some construction planning. He may have skipped out on beehives as a room feature, but he still wanted to build some beehouses for the queens that didn’t have them yet. The Apiary itself had more queens than beehouses once its spawners had filled up to their max, and none of the Flower Meadow queens had a beehouse at all. The only reason he hadn’t gotten started was that he was still thinking about modifications to the design.

The Flower Meadow queens, after all, were no normal bees at this point. The queens and the soldiers bees were far larger than any mundane bee could ever grow. At the very minimum, Belissar would need to build the houses far larger to accommodate both the existing soldiers and any future growth.

And beyond that there was the question of purpose. Belissar’s current beehouses were a tool for a beekeeper. The trays made it easy for him to gather honeycomb from the hive, or to check on the status of the bees. That was helpful for the Apiary beehives, which were designed with that same purpose in mind. But the Flower Meadow colonies were different. Their focus was on defense, not honey production. So, the question was...how could Belissar adjust his beehouses to support them? Should he try to make his beehouses less accessible and more defensible? Did they even need trays and removable lids? Did they even need a beehouse at all?

All Belissar knew at this stage was that he didn’t want to make the standard beehouses for them, but working out the details was slow going. He was no castle builder, and defensible beehouses went against the very idea of beehouses in the first place, so he was charting out new territory here in more ways than one.

But one thing he could distract himself with...work on right away was a fence for the entrance. The bees had proven they could handle a shade alone...but there was no reason not to make use of all those traps he bought. If he could make a tall fence leading directly to the first pit trap, they could handle shades without putting anyone at risk at all.