How exactly does the beehive work?

[kittykat0510]

In spring I had one beehive sitting between some tulips and snowdrops and it doubled the amount the bar was filled every day. But now in summer, I have two beehives I put between my marigolds and sunflowers and the beehives don't double the amount the bar is filled. So I'm wondering how exactly these work. What I think is flowers only work on one beehive. Does anyone have any layout suggestions they think are best?

[mike]

Both flowers was fully grown? I think only fully blossom flowers works. Haven't figured that too, but it worked for me in the summer. I had them on default/small field, where was 8 pathes of flowers and 2 beehives between them.

[kittykat0510]

Yes they were fully grown. It pretty much acted like each beehive was only sitting next to one thing of flowers. And then I tried putting 2 beehives next to one thing of flowers and only one of the beehives was producing honey. Is there some way later in the game to speed this up? Lots of stuff needs honey but it takes forever to produce.

[mike]

Not sure, I'm on the fall already and there wasn't anything that spped this up. Anyway, what is "lots of things"? Maybe I'm missing something but I find almost no use for honey O_O

[Blutwurst]

theres actually not much use for honey... you dont need it a lot and can sell everything.
just the wax is needed in some potions or magic scrolls but thats all.

[Revan]

Talking about Honey, not the wax. ;) I wouldnt say "not much use" its about the same maybe 1 or 2 more where honey is needed vs. wax. You dont need wax for "better" scrolls but honey.

[kittykat0510]

Okay, maybe not lots but you need at least 3 in summer for various quests.

[löyly]

Huh, I haven't had any surplus honey to sell since spring (and I'm well into autumn now), it's all gone into quest items, requests from the notification board, potions, food...
I only have one beehive per plot though, two in total. I tried having a second one on the same plot, but productivity per hive went way down so I deleted it again.

I'm not sure I understand the OP "double the amount the bar was filled"... but in case this helps:
From what I gather, the darker colour in the progress bar is what's already filled, and the lighter colour is what's going to be produced the next day with the current amount of flowers (if you harvest flowers, you'll lose some potential progress for the next day).
I usually keep 4 fully grown flower patches around, which makes one jar of honey every 3 days IIRC.

[kittykat0510]

Originally posted by löyly:

Huh, I haven't had any surplus honey to sell since spring (and I'm well into autumn now), it's all gone into quest items, requests from the notification board, potions, food...
I only have one beehive per plot though, two in total. I tried having a second one on the same plot, but productivity per hive went way down so I deleted it again.

I'm not sure I understand the OP "double the amount the bar was filled"... but in case this helps:
From what I gather, the darker colour in the progress bar is what's already filled, and the lighter colour is what's going to be produced the next day with the current amount of flowers (if you harvest flowers, you'll lose some potential progress for the next day).
I usually keep 4 fully grown flower patches around, which makes one jar of honey every 3 days IIRC.

I'm sorry I worded it poorly. What I mean is the progress bar is filled somewhat for one set of flowers and double that amount if the beehive is next to two sets of flowers. And if it was next to three it'd probably be triple. But if you add another beehive between those two sets of flowers then both go back down to the progress bar only being filled as if they were next to one set of flowers. So yes, productivity goes down and I think I should get rid of my other beehive until I have more space to plant more flowers.

[Ydyp]

I came to the same conclusion as the OP one full grown flower bed only works on 1 beehive, so if you want 2 beehives with the speed boost you will need 4 flowerbeds and to make sure it is 2 for 1 you best place them a bit separate.

[Errapel]

Anyone tested how close to the flowers the beehive has to be? Can it be in the same patch but opposite ends? Can it work if flowers are outside house and beehives are in vegetable patch?

[Revan]

Originally posted by Errapel:

Can it work if flowers are outside house and beehives are in vegetable patch?

No, thats way too far.

[Kanitra]

I was having trouble, my bee hive was very slow. It was next to 1 flower bed and I kept harvesting and replanting that 1 bed. So I built a 2nd hive and place the 2 of them between 4 flower beds, up real close. I can't get past them I have to go around to the other side. The flowers will not wilt if you don't harvest them even though you can't water them when they say they are ready for harvest. So I only harvest 1 flower bed at a time and keep 3 full of grown flowers. This sped up my bee hives a lot. It still takes a few days, but much faster than before.

[Errapel]

Originally posted by Revan:

Originally posted by Errapel:

Can it work if flowers are outside house and beehives are in vegetable patch?

No, thats way too far.

I just tested this, and it turns out bees can fly across the farm. One I could see the bees on my flowers in the new veg patch, and two, when I picked those flowers, the beehives (which are in the original growing area, next to the house) lost a tone of potential progress.

So take-away is: Flowers planted anywhere on your farm, can be found by the bees!

[Errapel]

I've not yet tested the greenhouse however, logically I wouldn't expect the bees to reach flowers in there, but game mechanics don't always follow logic, so worth checking!

[Errapel]

Update: Believe it or not, flowers grown in the greenhouse DO count towards the beehives!