Beekeeping

Beehives

Obtaining

Wild beehives can be found on trees. They have a higher chance to generate in areas with higher Rainfall. This means that heavily forested areas are a good place to look for wild beehives in general. They have the highest chance to generate in areas where the rainfall is 2000 or higher, and they will not generate at all in areas where the rainfall is less than 250 .

There are two varieties of wild beehives: one that hangs from branches, and one that is embedded in a Large Log.

Disturbing wild hives will anger the bees, which will sting the player, and will not allow the player to take anything from the hive. In order to open the hive, the player will have to calm the bees by lighting a Firepit less than 8 blocks below the hive. Wild Hives will always contain at least one Fertile Honeycomb. If the Fertile Honeycomb is taken, the hive will collapse, leaving some empty combs, which can be made into wax.

Usage

The player can make Basket Hives by crafting a Straw Basket with a Knife.

Basket Hive

Basket Hives can be populated by placing a Fertile Honeycomb in the Hive's inventory. Bees in an Basket Hive produce combs faster than bees in a wild hive and can be accessed without using a campfire to calm the bees.

The Hive has an area of effect 17x17x8 blocks centered on the hive. The area extends 8 blocks away from the hive in each horizontal direction, 4 blocks above, and 3 blocks below.

If there are Flowers (except Goldenrod) in the Hive area there is a chance to produce a Honeycomb each day. The chance increases (up to a point) as the number of flowers in the area increases.

Each Fruit Tree leaf block near the hive counts as 2 flowers while it is in bloom. Leaf blocks that blossom near a Hive will produce extra fruit at harvest time.

Bees will go dormant when the temperature drops below 10 degrees. High temperature does not affect them.

Honeycombs left in a Basket Hive have a chance to become a Fertile Honeycomb, which can be used to populate another Hive.

If other Hives are in the same area, the effect of flowers will be reduced according to the following formula: (flowers in area) ÷ √(hives in area). This means that if there are two hives in the area, each flower is only ~70% effective. With 4 hives, each flower will only be 50% as effective, and 15 hives will mean that flowers will be 25% as effective.

Honey

Obtaining

Honey can be extracted from a full honeycomb by crafting it with a knife and a bowl.

Usage

Ceramic Bowls of Honey have a capacity of 250 mB and can be stacked. Honey can be drunk directly from the Ceramic Bowl to restore Hunger. Honey can also be stored in Barrels and Large Ceramic Vessels. Honey can not be held in Glass Bottles.

Placing a Ceramic Bowl, Wooden Bucket, or Ceramic Bucket of Honey into a Barrel of Fresh Water will immediately create Honeywater, which is used for crafting Alcohol. Because the volume of the Honey will be added to the volume of water, there must be enough free space in the Container for the Honey to be added (250 mB for a Ceramic Bowl, and 1,000 mB for either of the Buckets).

Wax

Empty honeycombs can be melted in an unsealed Large Ceramic Vessel placed on top of a firepit to produce Wax. One empty honeycomb is worth 300 mb of wax. When a piece of string of any kind (excluding Sinew) is placed in Wax, it creates a Candle, which are a safe source of light which do not have the risk of lighting other blocks on fire. One Candle consumes 200 mb of Wax.

Note: Currently, heating more than 8 empty honeycombs at once may not work. Try melting the honeycombs one at a time.

Wax
300 mB 2 hours

Candle
200 mB N/A

History

Beta
0.82.6		Added beehives and honey.
0.83.0		Fix beehives generating too many honeycombs.
0.83.3		Added Wax, made from melting empty honeycombs in a Large Vessel. This can be used to make Candles.
0.84.0		Beehives now require a full hive of Combs to generate a Fertile Comb, and are limited on how often they can make Fertile Combs.