Best fuel for beehive kilns?

[Maelstrom]

Has anyone scienced out which fuel is best for beehive kilns?

[LadyWYT]

I don't know that it's proper science, but I like to use peat. One stack under each fuel slot is enough to fully fire the kiln, and peat is rather easy to find.

[Maelstrom]

Same with firewood and charcoal.  How long does peat take to fire clay?

[LadyWYT]

29 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

How long does peat take to fire clay?

I'm not entirely sure, as I've never really timed it. But it is finished after a day of firing, maybe a little less. It might use the same firing times as pit kilns, thus making fuel type make a difference, but I'm not sure.

[Demoncyborg]

i'm not sure how accurate it still is if anything's changed, but the wiki has a detailed bit on best fuels for the beehive and pit kiln! :]

by the looks of it, Coal should be your answer

 

 

[Professor Dragon]

9 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Has anyone scienced out which fuel is best for beehive kilns?

Yes, there have been Reddit threads and also on this Forum here where people have broken it down.
Of particular interest is this part from @MKMoose:

On 1/23/2026 at 1:51 AM, MKMoose said:

Oddly enough, the temperature of the items inside the beehive kiln is for all practical purposes entirely irrelevant. As fuel burns, an internal progress value gets incremented linearly based only on burn time. If the fuel stops burning or the kiln door is opened, progress is simply retained. Redram has mentioned that they may revise the beehive kiln's mechanics whenever a larger temperature overhaul comes around:

Generally, it's not possible to optimize the fuel consumption in "normal" ways, because the "normal" minimum is simply dictated by the burn time necessary to complete the process. If you want to optimize it further, it requires to basically exploit some flaws in the code.

If you want to go direct to the source, then check the code here:
https://github.com/anegostudios/vssurvivalmod/blob/master/BlockEntity/BEBeeHiveKiln.cs

I'd drill into what you mean by "best." If you mean "most efficient use of fuel for items fired" then it is possible to calculate it out.
The Wiki in spirit is correct, but I feel doesn't capture exactly what happens in practice: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Beehive_kiln#Fuel_efficiency

I've found that a full load of ceramic items takes 9 x 32 peat bricks, where "full" means "more than the default kiln is meant to hold, but using stacking tricks."

As @LadyWYT correctly says, simply loading up the Beehive kiln with peat, and putting in a full load of ceramic items, works out just fine in practice. Anything more, in my opinion, is fiddling around the edges - especially considering how easy peat is to harvest once you are up to this level of technology. Charcoal and Coal are better used for iron and steel production.

If you did wish to test in practice, then switch to Creative, create three Beehive kilns, load them up with the same maximum load of items and different fuels, and increase time speed with commands. (It might be fun to have the "Extra Info" mod on, and see if that correctly captures this specific scenario, but that is a bonus points homework assignment.)

The main use of a Beehive kiln is:

• Stacks of stuff eg fireclay bricks, tiles
• Colouring clay items (My personal favourite)
• Easier to quickly load lots of items, while negating fiddling with sticks and grass

I know I didn't actually answer the direct question asked (although I think MKMoose gets to the heart of it), but I hope that helps with the "why" anyway. 
If I had to answer simply, I'd say "A full load of peat is best, because it gets the job done easily without over-thinking it."

Professor Dragon.

Edited Monday at 11:37 AM by Professor Dragon

[Maelstrom]

@Professor Dragon  Thank you.   Pretty much what my intuition was telling me. 

BTW - you get the win.  

Edited Tuesday at 12:14 AM by Maelstrom