Forestry is a mod designed to enhance the agricultural aspects of MineCraft. It adds many machines which can construct and maintain an area of farmland for different crops or resources, an extensive and rewarding beekeeping system, and also introduces it's own versions of "green" fuel and engines. Special honey-based foods, Survivalist's Tools, and Backpacks are noteworthy.

Forestry is designed to be compatible with BuildCraft (BC) and IndustrialCraft (IC2). In particular, BuildCraft engines can be used to power Forestry machines, it's pipes are all compatible for automation, and Forestry's Electrical Engine will not work without IC2 installed.


What Foestry adds to the World Generation

Upon starting a new game and exploring, you'll probably notice colored blocks with stripes around the biomes of the world. These are beehives, and while you can break them easily with anything, only a Scoop will yield Bees and maybe a Honeycomb. Different biomes will house different colored beehives, with different species of bees.

If you find a village, you might see a yellow-colored house, with a new yellow-robed Villager. This Beekeeper Villager will trade with you in Bee products only, and he always has two Apiaries in his yard, possibly with goodies stored inside.

Finally, Forestry adds Apatite gems, for fertilizer, and Copper and Tin Ores, which will yield the Ore (like Iron) and can be smelted to produce Ingots. Copper and Tin are both used extensively throughout the mod, either directly in recipes or combined to create Bronze (3:1 Copper to Tin). Bronze is used in machines, as well as for a new set of armor and tools, with strength and durability just above Iron. In a few cases, such as for Buckets, Tin can be substituted for Iron in the Vanilla recipe.


Starting a New Game

To get started in Forestry, you'll want to do some mining and exploring to collect some resources, just like Vanilla MC. Keep an eye out for Copper and Tin on top of the usual Iron, Gold and Diamond -- you'll need all of these for machines sooner or later. Apatite is the only way to make fertilizer at the start, but other options will open up, and the demand will never be heavier than you can handle.

You should collect sand and dirt -- at least a few stacks of each -- because when a machine builds a farm it will lay out the growing space, and you will need to supply dirt, or use these to craft Fertilizer and Humus for that space. Keep in mind that whatever automated farms you build will also need some seeds or saplings to get started.

You'll want to collect wood, some wool and string for Backpacks (and Scoops if you're bee-inclined).


Power

If you're strictly sticking to Forestry, or utilizing BC, IC2 or maybe another mod like Thermal Expansion, that may change how you power your first machines. Forestry machines use MJ power. Within Forestry, you have two basic choices for power: Peat or Biogas. Like BuildCraft Engines, Forestry Engines needs a redstone signal to run; unlike BuildCraft engines, they cannot blow up!

Peat Engine: Runs on Peat or Bituminous Peat. Peat is really easy to produce, by crafting Bog Earth from dirt, sand and water, and placing it next to a water source block to let it 'moisten'. When it turns dark, you can harvest it. This process can be automated with a PeatBog and Turbary, which will place the Bog Earth, water sources, harvest the Peat, and replace it with new Bog Earth. Peat will burn for 5000 ticks! However, a Peat Engine will only produce 1 MJ/tick. You can craft 2 Peat with 2 Ash (from burning Peat in a Peat Engine) and 1 Propolis (bee product) to create Bituminous Peat, which will burn in the Engine for 6000 ticks at 2MJ/tick. Peat does have one advantage over Bituminous Peat: you can use Peat in a Furnace to smelt 20 items each, in a Sterling Engine just like coal (BC), or in an IC2 Generator for 5000 EU. You can't do any of this with Bituminous Peat.

Biogas Engine: Runs on various organic fuels -- water, liquid honey, milk, seed oil, or Biomass. It's a tad pricier than Peat Engines to startup, requiring Bronze instead of Copper. Biomass is your end-game Forestry power, so you could essentially invest in Biogas Engines and use them even as you work your way up the fuel chain. However, with Forestry alone, you might find you never need that much power. Biogas Engines output different amounts of MJ depending on the fuel used (up to 5MJ/tick with Biomass), can only hold one type of fuel at a time, and they require some lava when at start up while they get hot, which can be added by bucket. Note that water as a fuel source requires a constant input of lava. You can use BC waterproof pipes to fuel them.

If you have IC2 installed, you can also use an Electrical Engine, which does not need it's own fuel, but instead draws EU power from a source (for example, from a Batbox through Insulated Copper cables) and converts it to MJ, at a 6:2 ratio. This ratio can be altered using Circuit Boards with Electron Tubes.

All Forestry Engines are compatible with BC Conductive pipes.


Machines

Once you have power, you will need two simple crafting machines: Thermionic Fabricator and Carpenter. The Thermionic Fabricator makes various electron tubes, and the Carpenter makes circuit boards. All farm machines require some combination of both.

The Thermionic Fabricator needs at least 2 MJ of power: 1-2 Forestry Peat Engine(s) (depending on the peat), 1-2 Biogas Engine(s) (depending on the fuel), 1 Electrical Engine, or 2 BC Stirling Engines should do the trick. It needs this steady stream of 2 MJ to stay hot enough to melt glass. In the GUI, the left side shows the conversion to liquid glass. You will need to supply Glass blocks, Glass panes, or Sand in the top left slot to melt. The slider indicates how much heat you need for the recipe. By left-clicking an item in a spot on the crafting grid, you shape the recipe (you don't place the items there like you would in a crafting table -- instead you store the needed materials in the inventory spaces below). If you right-click a spot in the crafting grid, you'll remove the ingredient. Once the recipe is valid, the item will appear in the bottom right spot, and when there's enough heat and liquid glass, you can click to take one. It will automatically draw from it's own inventory. The last spot - the top left - is for a wax cast, for making stained glass.

The Carpenter also needs at least 2(?) MJ of power; more power supplied will make it operate faster. It needs some amount of liquid, usually water or seed oil, depending on the recipe. You can fill up the tank by bucket, or you can use BC pipes to pump it in from a source into any side. The liquid level is shown on the right side of the GUI. The crafting table functions more like a normal crafting grid: you can leave a stack of items in any slot, and you arrange items to produce an item in the slot next to it. Unlike a crafting table, the Carpenter will start automatically crafting if every slot has more than 1 available. If any ingredient only has one, it will not craft, but you can manually grab it from the slot above the arrow. Some recipes require certain "boxing" items, like crates -- these go in the top right slot. As the Carpenter automatically crafts, it will move the products to the bottom right slot. If there is no room, it will pause production until the slot is open.

There is no right or wrong farm to start with, athough some work well hand in hand, and operating them is relatively simple and consistent. All farm machines require a supply of 1 MJ of power, from some kind of engine - A single Peat Engine, or Stirling from BC, works. There are two basic types of farm machines: ones that create and maintain the farm, and ones that harvest. Not all farms need both; for example, cactus and sugarcane regrow, so they only need harvesters (there is no machine to plant). Machines that create have storage for dirt (or Humus, Bog Earth, etc.) and seeds/saplings, and sometimes a spot for biproduct. Machines that harvest need storage to dump their produce, like an adjacent chest, or BC transport pipes. Some farms only need an initial stash of dirt or seeds, while others will need a constant supply. All farm machines have a designated area around them that they can reach, with a 9x9 hollow center; for example, a Farm will maintain a wheat farm in a 15x10x15 area, centered on the machine.

Some farms also benefit from a Forester, a special extra machine that distributes Catalyst to speed up the farm's growth.

See the pages for each farm for specific details:
(links)
Trees: Arboretum / Logger / Forester
Wheat: Farm / Combine / Forester
Pumpkin/Melon: Pumpkin Farm / Pumpkin Harvester
Mushroom: Mushroom Farm / Mushroom Picker
Netherwart: Netherwart Farm / Infernal Combine
Peat: PeatBog / Turbary
Cacti: Cacti Harvester
Sugarcane: Sugarcane Harvester


Bees

Beekeeping is a huge part of Forestry, and can be intimidating. It can get very in-depth but you don't have to map entire genomes to start producing those sweet bee products. Here's what you need, and how to get it:

Bees - Breaking a beehive with a Scoop (sticks and 1x Wool, shaped like a slingshot) will yield one princess and usually one drone. The species depends on the biome; there are 6 starting species of bees: Forest, Meadow, Tropical, Marshy, Modest, and Wintry. Keep in mind: bees don't stack! Forest and Meadows are very similar species and make good starters.

Apiary - You can craft these for the low (total) price of 10 logs, but the process requires a Carpenter and a Squeezer (to make seed oil). You can get started before you've even gone mining by finding a Village with a Beekeeper. He can offer a trade of 1 Apiary for 24 logs, and he will always have two free Apiaries in his yard. They might even have Frames and Queens inside. You can find him quickly in a Village, because his house is uniquely yellow. Apiaries must be broken with a Stone pick or better to drop.

Frames - You will want 3 of these per Apiary to maximize honeycomb production. Bees can work and produce without them but you'll get noticeably more with them. They have durability, and come in 3 flavors: Untreated, Impregnated, and Proven. The first two can be crafted through similar means as an Apiary (requiring a Carpenter and a Squeezer). Proven Frames are the best however, and can be bought from Beekeeper Villagers - 6 Proven Frames for 1 Emerald. Beekeeper Villagers will also offer to buy Princesses for 1 Emerald, so you can trade exclusively with him, if you prefer.

Flowers - Forest and Meadow bees like Flowers, but Tropical bees (from Jungles) prefer Vines and Ferns, Marshy bees (from Swamps) need mushrooms, Modest bees (from Desert) need cacti, and Wintry bees (from Taigas) need snow. One near the Apiary is good enough, and they will actually create more flowers in the vicinity as they work.

When you place your Apiary, you can right-click to open the GUI, and check the middle tab on the right to see what the temperature and humidity of the area is -- this is dependant on the biome, and different bees like different climates, but if you're having trouble, remember they will produce in a climate like their native biome. For example, Forest bees will breed and produce in Forests and Plains. You can also craft a Habitat Locator, place honey and your bee inside, to locate a suitable home.

Once you find a place for your Apiaries, put your frames in the 3 slots down the middle, and then place a princess and a drone in the left slots (top and bottom respectively). The bar on the left will fill up, your princess will be replaced with a Queen, and the drone will dissapear. The full bar on the left now represents your Queen's life, and she will produce honeycomb (appears in the right-side honeycomb-shaped slots) until she dies. How much honeycomb a single Queen can produce varies, but there are traits that can be improved through breeding, such as working speed and life length; however, you can't see these traits without analyzing the bee in a Beealyzer. The type of honeycomb produced depends on the species. When the Queen dies, she will leave a princess, and 1-3 drones inside the Apiary.

You can simply put a same species princess and drone in an Apiary, to produce honeycomb, and that encompasses the basics of beekeeping. A Centrifuge will break down honeycomb into other honey products. You can also use honeycomb to craft the Apiarist's Chest and Apiarist's Backpack, which will each store 125 bees.

Placing different species together in an Apiary will attempt to crossbreed them, yielding hybrid bees and sometimes completely mutating into new species. There are many advanced species, with their own special traits and honeycombs, that can be created only from crossbreeding. The affects of crossbreeding won't always be readily apparent - the Queen will keep the traits of the Princess, but her offspring can have traits from the pools of the princess and the drone. All bees have active and inactive traits, and crossbreeding can create bees with traits unusual to their species, such as nocturnal Forest bees, poison-less Tropicals, or Marshies that like Normal climates and flowers. Breeding a new species, special traits into (or out of) a species, or refining a species with all the best traits, is an end-product of experimentation, persitance, and chance. A Beealyzer is an essential tool for this manual process.

Beekeeping can be automated to different degrees depending on which mods you are using. Forestry includes Apiarist Pipes, which can be used to sort bees, sending a princess and drone back to the Apiary, and products to storage. Buildcraft pipes are also compatible.

Beekeeping is necessary to craft foods like Honey Bread and Ambrosia, and items like Woven Backpacks (45 slots vs. the standard 15), stained glass, and wax capsules.