Beekeeping in Detail

[Xelmoth]

Hello folks. I like the idea of beekeeping and want to make a more detailed suggestion.

Proficiencies required:
5000 Stocks & Cultivars
3200 Sugar & Spice
3000 Natural Philosophy
2000 Thread & Needle

Crafts unlocked

Gauze
Plant Fibre x 6
A cloth used for crafting Hand net and Beekeepers hat.

Hand net
Sharpened Stick x 1
Branch x 3
Gauze x 1
Use the new action “Find bees” on tree stumps, logs or maybe flowers, while equip the Hand net, to find a little swarm of bees. The swarm is transferred to the Beebox. “Find bees” uses Phlegm. The chance of finding a swarm is 0.1 % of your Natural philosophy value.

Beebox
Dry Board x 2
Nails x 1
To transport or storage a Swarm of bees have this Box in your inventory (uses one slot). Right click on full box to have the swarm in your hand. Right click with swarm in your hand on Beebox or Beehive will put the swarm in it.

Beekeepers hat
Cotton Cloth x 1
Gauze x 4
Using the action “Find Bees”, using the Beebox or open the hive there is a chance to get a beesting and lose some blood. The Beekeepers hat will prevent you from this damage.

Beehive
Dry Boards x 8
Nails x 2
Looks like a big Wooden box with 5 x 5 slots. Put the swarm of bees in it (uses one slot) and wait. The Beehive has a range of 10 meters. Every gardening pot within this range can be used by the bees as long as it has a flower in it. Additional fields (cotton, Cabbage and Pumpkin) and tress (apple, pear, cherry, chestnut ... - if implemented) could be used as a source of nectar. If a field and a tree is visited by bees it could leed to an increase of its outcome (Plenty +20%). One swarm of bees will produce an event every 100 hours if it can feed on flowers(field or trees).

Event:
5% Royal jelly (inspirational 2500 P&P, 2000S&C and 2500 S&S)
5% propolis (inspirational 1500 H&G, 2000 L&L and 500 PP)
10 % new swarm of bees
80 % honeycomb

Event = 100 h x (Bees/Flowers) x 4
(2 swarm of bees + 8 flowers will lead to 2 events after 100 h or 1 event after 50 h)
Bees / Flowers >= 0.25 (cannot eat from more than 4 flowers)
Bees / flowers > 1 swarm are starving and leaving the Beehive

If there is no slot free for new item (royal jelly, propolis, new swarm or honeycomb) the resident swarms will leave in search for new places to live.

Honeyextractor
Dry Boards x 12
Nails x 12
Bar of Iron x 3
Works like the press. Fill in the honeycombs (5 x 5 slots). After centrifugation use the Honeyglas to collect the honey (1 combs yields 0.05 l honey) (10 combs yields 1 clump of beewax)

Honeyglas
Clay x 3 (Kiln)
Can store 500 ml = 0.5 l Honey. Honey can be used in various recipes.
Any meat + honey -> much better healing values than just “Roasted Meat”
Honey on any sweat pastry can increase the effects
Dough + roasted chestnuts + honey: “Bienenstich”
Honey put into tea (if the tea will also be implemented)
…
Honey itself: heals humors
Honey may put in a tree stump to attract bears

Candle (small)
Plant Fibre x 1
Clump of Beewax x 1
Used as a light and fire source. Has to be put in a chandelier or a lamp.

Candle (big)
Plant Fibre x 2
Clump of Beewax x 4
Used as a light and a fire source. Last longer than the small ones. Can stand on its own on the ground or table.

Chandelier
Bar of Iron x 1
Can hold candles.

The beewax and the honey should have the same purity than the flowers, fields or trees the bees using. Beewax could also be used for soap and other stuff.

At the time Salem plays the Langstroth hive (modern beehive – wooden box similar form first described 1750) is not invented. People would use the Skeps and destroying the bee colony every time they harvest the honey. Also there is no Honeyextractor (centrifuge).
If this historical issue is important to you I suggest a Skep (Clay x 4 + Hay x 6 + Swarm of bees x 1) that is destroyed after every “Beeseason”. It works like a timber pile. You can`t look until you harvest. For the honey extractor I would then suggest a honey press (Gauze x 4 + Dry Boards x 12 + Nails x 10 + Bar of Iron x 1)

What do you think?

[Dallane]

i think the hives should also help the fields

[staxjax]

It would be neato if beehives affected the purity somehow. It would be a much more complex system to have to alter/raise your bee purity for them to affect your crops in positive way. Realistically, I don't know if it makes much sense, but it would be cool.

OP, I didnt read your post because it was too long.

[Hans_Lemurson]

It looks like you put a lot of thought into this. I like it.

It would be amusing if bee-stings caused more of a problem than just a few blood and bee-hives were used as defenses, but getting the bee density high enough could be difficult.

Would honey have purity? Some recipes that specifically used honey would also be nice.

Also, an interesting note: Honey Bees were an Old-World species which was introduced by Europeans, and were not present in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. The native tribes would see the arrival of honey-bees into their area as harbingers of further European expansion.

It would be neato if beehives affected the purity somehow. It would be a much more complex system to have to alter/raise your bee purity for them to affect your crops in positive way. Realistically, I don't know if it makes much sense, but it would be cool.

OP, I didnt read your post because it was too long.

Oh come on, you can't read?

Anyways, I agree that an intriguing system would be one where the bees gave bonuses to nearby crops. How exactly bees would help Grain, Cotton or Corn is not clear to me but it could be fascinating nonetheless.

[Dallane]

i didn't read either i just skipped around

[JinxDevona]

love love love

[Mereni]

You should take the time to read it, it's a good idea.

I like the idea. When you talk about flowers in pots, do you mean any plant that can be grown in a pot, or only the ones that are actually flowers like the rose and the sunflower? And do the pots need to be growing, or can they be at full growth?

If the bees have an effect on crops and are affected by them, it would have to count only for pumpkin, cabbage, and cotton. Corn and grains self pollinate or wind pollinate. It could make crop rotation hard on the bees unless they have a good sized range capable of stretching across a farm.

Would bee hives share pots/fields? Like if you have two beehives, would each one be able to feed from a particular pot to the max? If not, how would 'ownership' of the pot be decided?

[Potjeh]

Yeah, bonuses for crops don't really make sense. Fruit trees, on the other hand, fit perfectly.

And I love the idea of tying fruit purity to bee purity.

[dageir]

I say ye.

[Mereni]

Bees and apple trees. Yes, please.