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[fijkus]

Okay, so I noticed some bees colonies on my map. Since bees can be exploited for booze, food and profit I am rather keen on starting a beekeeping industry.

Other then the artificial hive, a beekeeper and the presence of bees are there any other conditions for placing a hive? Or an ideal placement? I would rather prefer to keep them indoors, lest they get cut off by a siege.

[BurnedToast]

Hives must have access to the outside, however you can just channel a hole down to the middle of your fort so it's technically an outside square even if the bees would have to travel 100 squares up to get out.

However, as much as I hate to say it, it's probably not worth the effort unless you just want to play with it. Bees produce too little honey/jelly for the effort involved... especially compared to farming. You won't be able to feed very many dwarves at all even with the max number of hives since production is so slow.

Edit: on top of that, honey/mead is not particularly valuable either so you can't use it to make super nice drinks for your nobles/legendary workers/exporting.

[Captain Xenon]

what i have been doing, is i wall and roof a small area of the outside, put a farm there (strawberry/rope reed), a pasture, and some beehives. you get the occasional sting, with a dead bee, and a LOT of spamming from some idiot failing to get the honey out of the hive.

the real reason to do this, near as i can tell, is that its the only way to get wax. mead is a nice bonus.

no idea how many hives you need to actually have enough product to work with. but it would be a lot of hives. i expect that a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping may be necessary.

[fijkus]

no idea how many hives you need to actually have enough product to work with. but it would be a lot of hives. i expect that a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping may be necessary.

i expect that a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping may be necessary.

a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping

And I've just found my first megaproject for if fun doesn't find me first.

[knaveofstaves]

a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping

And I've just found my first megaproject for if fun doesn't find me first.

Pardon my beg, but if this provides you with an opportunity to flesh out the wiki's beekeeper page I would greatly appreciate it. My personal hobbyhorse is the relationship between attributes and skills, so if you happen to notice which attributes improve on your dedicated beekeepers...

[nanomage]

no idea how many hives you need to actually have enough product to work with. but it would be a lot of hives. i expect that a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping may be necessary.

i expect that a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping may be necessary.

a tower-structure for optimal bee-keeping

And I've just found my first megaproject for if fun doesn't find me first.

It's going to be a beehivehive


EDIT: Actually, beekeeping looks ineffective in terms or dwarf labour/output value ratio. On the other hand, we have hundreds of badgers running around. While dwarf labour is wasted when invested into beekeping, badger labour is not!
I think it would be nice if dwarves somehow taught badgers or honey badgers to gather honey for them!

[Korva]

Beekeeping is still bugged. I have half my hives set to gather, I have jugs aplenty, I have one and only one beekeeper, but no one has touched those hives in the 10-year history of my fort, except one time at the very beginning. So, yeah, it's pretty labor intensive for not a whole lot of gain, and it can end up bugging out on you too.

[nanomage]

Beekeeping is still bugged. I have half my hives set to gather, I have jugs aplenty, I have one and only one beekeeper, but no one has touched those hives in the 10-year history of my fort, except one time at the very beginning. So, yeah, it's pretty labor intensive for not a whole lot of gain, and it can end up bugging out on you too.

For me the biggest inconvenience in beekeeping is that jelly and honey do not get stacked in pots or barrels, instead lying aroung in individual jugs. It also looks like that jugs which are stored in finished goods stockpile can't be user for beekeeping related labours, even if there is jelly or honey in them.  It's also irritating that my gem setters waste gems and glass and time on jugs instead of totems when ordered to encrust trade goods.

[CapnUrist]

Beekeeping is still bugged. I have half my hives set to gather, I have jugs aplenty, I have one and only one beekeeper, but no one has touched those hives in the 10-year history of my fort, except one time at the very beginning. So, yeah, it's pretty labor intensive for not a whole lot of gain, and it can end up bugging out on you too.

You have to make sure your hives are adjacent or in "outside" tiles, meaning no ceiling above them. If not, they'll produce one round of honey/jelly/wax, then never produce anything again. I have a little bee hall off my main food production floor that hasn't produced anything in eight years. I just keep it there because I like seeing pets getting stung.

[drkpaladin]

There is a maximum number of hives you can have, so there is a pretty hard limit out there on how much mead you can get.  All that effort for a few seasons to net you one unit of honey, which turns into 5 units of mead.  You can make maybe a total of 75 mead a year, at least sustainably without relying on fresh beehives.  I don't mind so much, making food and drink is too easy now, so I just stopped farming altogether and a little mead for alot of effort is more fun than 6000 units of another drink.

A megaproject would be wasted a little bit since 25-30 hives is the max right now, on the other hand, a challenge involving a few beehives in a small fort in the sky might be fun, you couldn't probably feed more than the original seven with just honey and mead though.

[Korva]

For me the biggest inconvenience in beekeeping is that jelly and honey do not get stacked in pots or barrels, instead lying aroung in individual jugs. It also looks like that jugs which are stored in finished goods stockpile can't be user for beekeeping related labours, even if there is jelly or honey in them.  It's also irritating that my gem setters waste gems and glass and time on jugs instead of totems when ordered to encrust trade goods.

Hmm. I wonder if the jug thing is what is causing my problem. The hives are and have always been outdoors so that's not a problem. I'd really like to use bees properly, but it's just too buggy right now.

[Brent Not Broken]

I'd really like to use bees properly, but it's just too buggy right now.

Aheheh.