Forage, The Bee Game

A lovable hazard

The Bear wanders the meadows, woods, and fields around your hives, sniffing out honey and stirring up just enough trouble to keep every round interesting.

It is lovable, unpredictable, and a little too hungry — creating memorable moments whenever it meets the bees and their laden hives.

In the box

Every copy of Forage includes one Bear, one die, and one Sun token.

At setup, put the Bear in the centre of the board. Placing your hive near early pollen in the middle helps you breed quickly — and puts you closer to the Bear. A risk-and-reward choice that shapes the whole game.

Prototype bears were handmade in FIMO clay. Production copies are durable toy plastic (PVC).

The Bear player

Choose one player to be The Bear — often the first player. A good tip: pick the last person stung by a bee, or nominate someone.

• That player rolls the die and moves the Bear once at the start of every round.
• Only the first player moves the Bear, and only once per round.
• Hive placement starts with The Bear player and goes clockwise. Each player places a hive on an empty space, takes the flowers underneath, and puts their Forager in the hive.

A second role, the Beekeeper, looks after bees and flowers removed from play — including anything the Bear eats.

Moving the Bear

The Bear is both a hazard and a wildcard. Each of the 12 rounds has three steps:

1. Advance the Sun one space (flip a Season Card on a mid-season Pick Up space).
2. Move the Bear — the first player rolls.
3. Player turns — move bees, gather flowers, breed, and interact as your mode allows.

The Bear also moves whenever a bee stings it. Season Cards can send it wandering in unexpected ways.

Bees may pick up and drop flowers anytime during movement, but cannot fly through the Bear’s space unless stinging it.

When it lands

In Fun and Competitive play:

• If it lands on bees, those bees are removed from play and handed to the Beekeeper.
• If it lands on a hive, it eats half the stored flowers, rounded up.

Flowers inside your hive are safe from other players while you have bees home. Leave nobody inside and rivals can rob it. The Bear can raid either way.

Stinging the Bear

A bee may move into the Bear’s space by stinging it. The Bear is pushed back one space, and the stinging bee is removed from play.

In Friendly mode, bees cannot sting the Bear.

How modes change the Bear

• Fun — the standard game. The Bear eats honey and bees if it lands on a hive or bee. Normal rules for robbing, bumping, and stinging apply.
• Friendly — best for new players or younger children. No robbing, bumping, or stinging. The Bear does not eat flowers or bees — it only scatters them around a hive if it robs one.
• Competitive — same Bear rules as Fun. Extra conflict is between bees (Bee Battles), not a different Bear.

For younger players you can remove the Bear during setup. Friendly mode is the gentler full-rules option if you still want the Bear as a mild hazard.

Solo mode: Survival of the Species and 2 Player Mode: Two-Year Challenge still use the Bear as part of the year — the extra challenge is surviving Winter and swarming to new hives.

Making the Bear

The Bear has been the most challenging character. Early FIMO clay versions had fragile ears, arms, and legs, and the first designs weren’t quite right.

Handmade v3 bears used in photography and prototype sets were very fragile. A 3D artist created the .stl files for the factory (v4), which were used to make the molds for the production PVC bear (v5).

No AI-generated art was used in Forage. A few 3D renders were made to show the future Bear clearly before the plastic piece existed.

Yari would love to make a fully wooden bear one day. It was too expensive for this production run.