FrontierVille on Facebook, the Wild West-themed game that lets virtual pioneers tame a piece of wilderness has attracted 20 million players since its June 9 launch, making it the third most popular Zynga game after FarmVille and Zynga Poker. The game combines elements of FarmVille with a robust mission structure and a "living world," which means constantly keeping nature and varmints at bay.

Other fun facts Frontierville since launch:

* 6.3 million people have built their frontier cabins
* 3.3 million people have built a general store
* 2.3 million people got married
* 1.1 million people have had a kid
* 10 million people have clobbered a snake (snakes were clobbered 252 million
* times)
* 3.6 million people have scared away a bear (bears were scared away 128 million times)

FarmVille is collaborating with Cascadian Farm and releasing for the first time a sponsored in-game branded crop. You heard it here first on FarmVille Freak and can check out that initial post by clicking here.

Cascadian Farm Public Relations department shared with FarmVille Freak the following images of the actual Cascadian Farm Organic Blueberries as they will appear in the FarmVille Market and there is also a screen shot of Farmer Joe Cascadian's farm.

Organic Blueberries seeds will cost 20 coins to purchase, will be ready to harvest in 4 hours and will also yield 2 XP.

As notated by the picture, Crop Mastery will be available for the Organic Blueberries crop.

Will you grow Organic Blueberries on your farm?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Everyone's buzzing about the new FarmVille beehive, mostly wondering how the #$!* to find a Queen Bee. So consider yourself warned: Finding this insect will most likely be a royal pain in the backside.

There are several ways to find the Queen Bee. The easiest way to find her is by keeping an eye on your Facebook Wall. Once one of your neighbors find a Queen Bee, they will also be able to share one with friends via Wall Post. Since this bee is in high demand, you'll really need to stay glued to your Wall, and click right away if you see someone giving away a Queen for free.

The second easiest way to find a Queen Bee is by purchasing one in the in-game Market. You can find the Queen Bee under the Animals category, and she costs 10 Farm Cash (roughly $2). Buy it, stick her in the hive and then start collecting Honeybees.

Zynga's FrontierVille was hit by a recent kerfuffle where a much needed item from the game -- Ribbons -- not only disappeared from the Free Gifts page, but it reappeared as a paid item at the in-game store! You can now find it under the "Special" section of the store, where the game is charging 4 Horseshoes, or 50 cents USD, for each one. That's akin to wagon train robbery considering how many Goals require the darn things.

Thread after thread after thread of concerned players brought up the issue in the official FrontierVille forums, where eventually, a Zynga moderator came in to explain that the ribbons were "taken off the list in error and will be back today (thursday in the US)."
Social Game Central published an editorial today, accusing Zynga of mistreating its players and that, while Zynga's got every right to monetize its games, this move of theirs has "crossed the line." For example, the author points out that the "Birthday Time!" Goal requires 4 Ribbons total to complete, so it might as well be renamed mission "Spend $2!"; while 91 Ribbons are needed for the School House Lessons (unlocked after the "Finding the Perfect Apple" Goal), which would cost nearly $45 USD if assembled with only bought Ribbons.

In Zynga's defense, premium copies of free items are always handy when you just don't have enough neighbors or friends playing, and you want an item quickly. But making something available for free and then taking it away, only to charge folks for it, is definitely not playing nice.

Update: According to one of our readers, as of 6:03 p.m. EST, Zynga has successfully returned the Ribbons to the Free Gifts page.

FarmVIlle FREE Mystery Gifts have been updated with new prizes!

Some of the old ones are mixed in with news ones, so expect to see old gifts as well.