Beekeeping issue (bug or not?)

[umbral oxide]

Hello, I've been playing your game for a long time (around 147 hours, I think on and off for 1-2 years). Since I started, I haven’t restarted my save file from scratch. I’ve received many updates throughout my gameplay, most of which I accessed without any issues, so I didn’t need to start a new save file. However, the latest update (beekeeping and watering) hasn’t fully reached me. There’s no issue with the watering aspect, I can access all the recipes. But I don’t have any updates related to beekeeping. I believe I’m supposed to receive a letter from an NPC in my mailbox, but I haven’t received anything. My mailbox is empty. At first, I thought this might be because I was in the winter season, so I waited until spring, but I still didn’t receive any mail. When I chop down trees, I don’t get any bees either. Could this be an issue because I haven’t started a new save file, or have I not yet discovered how to access the beekeeping system in the game? I couldn’t find a solution when researching online. Could you please help me? Thank you in advance!

[gentle tinsel]

The way it worked for me was chopping down a tree, recieve a bee queen and afterwards i recieved a letter from woody telling me I can buy blueprints. Bees seem to be rather rare, after choppping down my whole map twice I only got two. Maybe you just got very unlucky?

[umbral oxide]

Wow, I didn't expect queen bees to be this rare. I'll cut down more trees, thanks for your answer.

[finite mantle]

Make sure they're fully grown, they'll swing around as the wind blows as well as while you're chopping them down. Useful tell for autumn/winter.