Ewil Posted September 14, 2021 Report Share Posted September 14, 2021 Having a healthy bee farm indoors? Is that possible? Me and some friends just survived the long and dark winter, and now we wanted to be even more prepared for next winter to come. We just found salt, and we need honey and wax too. Anyone have experience with indoor beekeeping? We want to harvest wax during winter too.... BR //Ewil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Shadow Posted September 14, 2021 Report Share Posted September 14, 2021 I have never tried it, but I think it can work. Flowers can be planted in planters and there is nothing saying bees need to be outside; the wiki just says bees need to be able to path to the flowers. Flowers do not grow (except horsetail, kinda) so I doubt they need sunlight. Give it a go, but I would ensure to build it in an enclosed room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewil Posted September 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2021 12 hours ago, Silent Shadow said: I have never tried it, but I think it can work. Flowers can be planted in planters and there is nothing saying bees need to be outside; the wiki just says bees need to be able to path to the flowers. Flowers do not grow (except horsetail, kinda) so I doubt they need sunlight. Give it a go, but I would ensure to build it in an enclosed room. SUCSESS!!! I managed to move a wild hive into a skep, and place it in a underground meadow. They got plenty of flowers and even more empty skeps. Now they will swarm in 1 day, and I am excited to see how large farm I can keep. The thing was that me and my friends, started on the server on a summer. And we made a few flint-tools, exploring, treasure-hunting and chasing butterflies. And when fall and winter came, we got punched in the face, how hard survival really are...... And now it is about to be spring again, and NOW we concentrate on food-preserving, and build up stock to survive next hard winter! I just love the toughness of this game! //Ewil 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onsdag Posted September 16, 2021 Report Share Posted September 16, 2021 So last summer I had an outdoor apiary (1.14.10). At some point over the winter all my skeps vanished. I don't know if raccoons got to them, or the bees died out over the harsh winter months, or what. I decided come Spring to build an indoor apiary (now updated to 1.15.3) in order to 1) keep raccoons out, and 2) keep them warm in case it was the cold weather that killed them off. So far it has been extremely successful. It is just now turning Fall and colder weather is moving in, so time will tell if I can keep them through the winter or not. The size of my apiary is 12x14, I have 41 skeps, 3 straw dummys, a stone pathway, and the rest of the ground is covered in flowers (100+). Incidentally, I had put an empty skep on the roof of my apiary just above the door to show that the building was an apiary and a swarm of bees moved in. They do not have a path to the flowers but yet the flowers within the apiary count towards the colony's needs. I have since added a bunch more skeps to the roof and plan on comparing how they do in the winter versus the indoor hives. Some things to help improve your beekeeping experience: Bees are loud! For your sanity try to keep them some distance away from your home or other areas you frequent. Keep a cooper's reed farm nearby. You will go through a ton of them rebuilding your skeps after a harvest. Try and replace your skeps as you harvest them. This gives them time to repopulate the empty skeps before you've completely harvested everything in your apiary. If you choose to harvest everything at once then keep a "nuc" (a full skep) nearby that you don't ever harvest to repopulate your apiary with. Nothing's worse than having to go out and find a new wild hive and wait the 7 days to get started again. Keep a few dummy's in your apiary. I have 3, but I may up it to 5 as I find they're not quite enough to keep the bees off me as consistently as I'd like. Have a plan for all that honey and beeswax. You'll quickly fill up barrels and chests full of the stuff, so be prepared to use them up by cooking and preserving your food. Also, keep an eye out for nearby merchants who will buy beeswax and/or candles - this'll help bring in a steady supply of rusty gears which can then be used to buy other things you need. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewil Posted September 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2021 I have 2 buckets and 1 barrel filled with honey (70 liter). The beehives are underground, and a bit away. I have 20 skeps, and the bees are thriving underground. I did put in tons of flowers, so each skep have access to 35 flowers, and also some oil-lamps and lanterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted October 1, 2021 Report Share Posted October 1, 2021 Increasing the flower count to 100 will significantly decrease the rate of repopulating skeps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egon Posted October 8, 2021 Report Share Posted October 8, 2021 Could you please clarify why increasing the number of flowers over a certain number ( the max needed I assume) decreases the repopulating time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted October 8, 2021 Report Share Posted October 8, 2021 Game mechanics. Skep repopulation happens quicker with more flowers. Max speed is achieved when there's 100 flowers surrounding the skep. Hovering over the skep will indicate how many flowers the skep recognizes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Shadow Posted October 9, 2021 Report Share Posted October 9, 2021 So is adding more than 100 flowers provide no benefit or does it actively harm re-population time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted October 11, 2021 Report Share Posted October 11, 2021 Having over 100 doesn't harm repopulation. I have a couple of skep locations that are 107 flowers in range and haven't seen them repopulate slower than skeps with fewer flowers. I believe the cap is 100 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malfiros Posted October 13, 2021 Report Share Posted October 13, 2021 Definitely more than 100… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted October 14, 2021 Report Share Posted October 14, 2021 While there can be more than 100 flowers identified by a skep I believe the benefit of additional flowers over 100 is ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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