Skep "Nearby Flower" Variance

[PhotriusPyrelus]

So I have my Skeps set up like this: (facing south)



The minimap would show something like this:



Grey squares are skeps, purple squares are Blue Lupins.  For some reason, there's a wild difference between the "nearby flower" readings for all similar skeps.  For example, the edge of skeps on the right side (West) of the in-game screen shot display a "nearby flowers" of (from North to South) 91, 118, 128, and 101.

As I understand it, Skeps are meant to read flowers as 'nearby' if they are within 7 blocks.  There's no flowers to the North, South, or West, and the East-side fence is over 10 blocks from the West-most row of Skeps, so why is there this variance?  I understand the inner two are going to have more flowers than the corners, but 91 != 101, and 118 != 128.

[Ender Riens]

When you place a flower (or most any plant), it places it in a random set position within the block to add minor variance. The range on beehives is actually not based on exact block lengths--I'd guess it's actually more of a circle. The takeaway is that flowers may or may not count towards a beehive (if they are near its max range) depending on where the flower is placed within the block.

Here is an example:

A skep with a row of 3 flowers placed 8 blocks away in all directions. Notice the "nearby flowers" is not a multiple of 4 (or not zero), as you'd expect--that is because a particular 3 flowers are placed nearer to the skep inside of their block (close enough to fall within its range).

[PhotriusPyrelus]

Wow.  Fascinating.  I knew about the flower offset, but I thought it was entirely aesthetic.