Difference between revisions of "Beekeeping industry"

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Revision as of 19:12, 2 March 2019

xTATTEREDx · +FINE+ · *SUPERIOR* · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡ · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.12 · v0.47.05

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Note that some content may still need to be updated.

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Beekeeping industry flowchart

The beekeeping industry is an agricultural process that involves farming honey bees in built hives to produce honeycombs and royal jelly, the former of which is further processed into honey and wax. The primary skill and labor used in the industry is beekeeping.

Setup

Finding wild bees

Wild colonies of honey bees · must be present on the map. Since live vermin cannot be bought during embark, wild bees are necessary to start beekeeping. Colonies of honey bees can appear in any non-freezing land biome, which excludes mountains, glaciers, and tundras. While they are common in places they appear ([FREQUENCY:100]), bees are not [UBIQUITOUS], thus are not guaranteed to appear in every region.

Bumblebees cannot be used in beekeeping.^[1] They do possess their own version of honey, royal jelly, wax, and even mead, all of which are unobtainable in normal gameplay.

Honey bees are one of the [VERMIN_SOIL_COLONY] creatures, which includes bumblebees, ants, and termites. Colonies of honey bees appear randomly on the surface ground as ○. Maps have a hard limit to how much wild colonies can appear simultaneously. If new colonies stop appearing, it means this limit has been reached. Therefore, honey bee colonies might be unable to spawn because the "space" is occupied by other vermin colonies. Building dirt roads over existing colonies frees up space for new ones to generate.

If a colony cannot be found after searching, set up a single hive and leave it for about a year as a last-ditch effort. Beekeepers will immediately be able to find an accessible honey bee colony that may have gone unnoticed or spawned inconspicuously. Occasionally check the hive for live bees by viewing the building with t from the menu.

Building hives

Main article: Hive

Workshop and labor requirements
Material	Workshop	Labor
Ceramic	Kiln or magma kiln	Pottery
Glass	Glass furnace or magma glass furnace	Glassmaking
Metal	Metalsmith's forge or magma forge	Metalcrafting
Stone	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Stonecrafting
Wood	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Woodcrafting

Hives ▬ are a tool. They can be made in a variety of hard materials from their respective workshops and labors. Beekeepers themselves do not make them. Hives are stored in finished goods stockpiles. They can be built by opening the building menu and either selecting Hive or pressing Alt + h. They can be built on any hard surface, both indoors and outdoors. Citizens with beekeeping enabled are needed to build them.

Tile attributes affect honey production. In order for hives to produce, they must be built adjacent to (or on) an above ground tile. Subterranean hives can still store colonies that can be used later for splitting, but they cannot produce anything. Hives are marked as having either Outdoor or No outdoor access; this is referring to the above ground and subterranean attributes, not the outside and inside attributes. Hives can produce normally in both outside and inside tiles. So long as hives are placed aboveground, they can be completely enclosed with constructions from outside while still creating products, allowing beekeepers to work safely at all times.

Hive management

Managing hives is fairly automated. Beekeepers will perform most of the necessary jobs on their own when available. There are two options in the building settings that can be toggled to control beekeepers from installing colonies or from gathering products in a hive. Hives are set by default to allow colony installation and product gathering.

In the job list, two notable beekeeping jobs are:

Install Colony In Hive – when a beekeeper installs a colony to a new hive.
Collect Hive Products – when a beekeeper gathers the products from a hive.

Examining hives

Hovering the cursor near a hive in the building settings menu (q) will display:

Which options have been set for that hive:
- c: Install colony when ready or Do not install colony.
- g: Gather any products or Do not gather products.
Whether it has Outdoor access or No outdoor access.
If the hive is Ready to be split or Not ready to be split.
If there are too many colonized hives on the map (due to a limit).

To see if a hive has a colony, use the "view items in buildings" menu. If a colony is present, it will show a stack of live honey bees inside a built hive. It will also show if the hive contains a honeycomb or royal jelly. To know how many hives are currently built on the map, open the building menu and look for the number next to the "Hive" button.

Colony installation

Beekeepers automatically haul colonies to new hives as long as they have access to a wild colony or another colony that is ready to be split from another hive. They must have their setting set to Install colony when ready. Hives set to Do not install colony will not accept new colonies, even after existing colonies are destroyed. If the settings change or the hive gets slated for removal before the beekeeper reaches the hive to install a new colony, then the job gets cancelled, and the hauled colony is removed from the beekeeper.

Beekeepers usually go for the closest available colony to install, whether it's a wild colony or a colony in a hive. Assigning beekeepers to burrows can prevent them from seeking other hives.

Splitting colonies

Colonies can split in three months after installation. A split-able colony is indicated in the building settings as Ready to be split. Splitting colonies produce new colonies that are installed to other hives, thereby increasing the colony count. In order to split the colony, an empty hive and a beekeeper must be present. A beekeeper will perform a splitting automatically if an empty hive is set to allow colony installation. After splitting, beekeepers haul the new colony to an empty built hive. Doing this leaves the original hive populated, and after another three months, it will become ready for splitting again.

Splitting a colony does not reset the honeycomb and royal jelly production. Forbidding a hive or its colony will not prevent beekeepers from using the hive's colony for splitting. If a hive is slated for removal but has not been removed yet, then the split-able colony inside can still be used for installation.

Gathering products

Hives containing colonies produce a single honeycomb and royal jelly. Honeycombs and royal jelly are "part" of the building, as indicated by the [B] symbol next to their names when viewing the building's items. When a beekeeper gathers them, the items are released from the hive, which allows a food hauler to carry the items to a stockpile. An empty jug is required to gather the products, since royal jelly must be stored in a container.

Hives must set to Gather any products for beekeepers to go and gather its products. A honeycomb and royal jelly must both be present in a hive before they can be gathered. When these requirements are met, a beekeeper will automatically find an empty jug and gather the products for hauling. Beekeepers usually go for the closest accessible hive to gather first. If the settings change or the hive gets slated for removal before the beekeeper reaches the hive to collect the products, then the job gets cancelled, and the jug is stored back.

The gathering process always destroys the colony inside the hive. The colony disappears instantly when destroyed. A new colony must be installed every time the products are gathered in order for the hive to produce more. To avoid colony extinction from gathering products, it is recommended to save a few hives just for splitting by changing their settings to not gather products. This would ensure a permanent supply of bees at all times.

Limit

There is a soft limit of 40 colonies. Empty hives, wild colonies, and hauled colonies do not count to this limit. When the number of colonies on the map reach over 41, honeycomb and royal jelly no longer have a 100% possibility of spawning six months after installation. If the colony does not produce a honeycomb or royal jelly, then players must wait another six months before it has a chance to produce again. The likelihood of spawning affects products individually, so it is possible that a honeycomb appears while royal jelly does not, and vice versa. The soft limit does not effect colonies that were installed before the limit was passed. Hives that contain colonies will have the following warning in the building settings when the soft limit is exceeded:

Too many hives
* Output restricted

The maximum limit of active colonies for honey production is 59. When the colony count reaches 60, no more hive products appear. It also resets all ongoing production, so any colony that was in the process of producing must wait at least six months again to produce honeycomb and royal jelly after the max limit is brought back down. When the max limit is reached, the warning message in the building settings reads:

Too many hives
* No output

The limits do not affect the spawning of wild colonies, nor do they alter the amount of time needed for colonies to become ready to split.

The total number of colonies can be checked in the stocks under "Small live animals" and hitting Tab to display individual stacks. Each stack represents a single colony. The number of colonies can exceed 60 by installing colonies into new hives (by splitting or collecting wild bees), but nothing is gained from doing this. To lower the number of colonies, either dismantle colonized hives, dump the colony, or allow beekeepers to gather existing products in the hive, which destroys the colony. To attain high output efficiency, keep the number of active hives below 41.

Removing hives

Built hives can be removed using the building menu (q + x). A beekeeper is required to remove the hive. After the building is removed, the item is carried back to a finished goods stockpile by an item hauler. Hives can also be destroyed by building destroyers and cave-ins. It is unknown if evil weather and temperature have any destructive effect on the building or colony.^[Verify]

Deconstructing a hive releases the colony inside (it cannot be retrieved), as well as dropping any honeycomb, royal jelly, or jug left inside. Fallen honeycombs and jugs can be hauled back, but spilled royal honey cannot be hauled.

Production and processing

Six months after installing a colony, a hive produces one honeycomb ∞ and one royal jelly ≈. Products have a 100% chance of spawning, unless the colony count exceeded the limit. Only one honeycomb and royal jelly will spawn at a time, and no further products will appear until they are gathered from the hive. The colony size does not affect the output speed. In addition, the surroundings, plants, weather, and the seasons do not affect production.

Royal jelly is a liquid food. It is used as an ingredient in prepared meals, but it can only be cooked if another solid food item is included in the meal.

Honeycombs are classified as tools, and are stored with other finished goods. As an intermediate product, honeycombs do not have any applications on their own, but when pressed at a screw press, it produces two items: honey ≈ and pressed wax (or wax cake) ≈, both of which are stored in food stockpiles. To press a honeycomb, add a new task in a screw press and select "Press honey from honeycomb" (h), or search and select "Press honey from honeycomb" in the manager screen. An empty jug is needed for the job to store the honey.

Honey, like royal jelly, is a liquid food that can be cooked into a meal. Additionally, honey can be brought to a still and brewed into mead, the only obtainable non-plant-based alcoholic drink. Wax can be processed into various crafts by a wax worker. Wax crafts have a material value of one.

Bugs

Stacks of honey bees in their hives can be mangled by forest fires, but will still live, resulting in some odd descriptions.^Bug:4101
Filled jugs may be stored in bins as finished goods, preventing the use of their contents in the food industry.^Bug:4229

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 {{buggy}}
-[[Image:Beekeeping Industry Flowchart.png|right|400px]]
+[[File:Beekeeping Industry Flowchart.png|thumb|upright=2.5|Beekeeping industry flowchart]]
-The '''beekeeping industry''' is an agricultural process that allows a fortress to produce auxiliary food ([[honey]], [[royal jelly]]), drink ([[mead]]), and craftable materials ([[wax]]) by farming [[honey bee]]s.
-== Basic setup ==
+The '''beekeeping industry''' is an agricultural process that involves farming [[honey bee]]s in built [[hive]]s to produce [[honeycomb]]s and [[royal jelly]], the former of which is further processed into [[honey]] and [[wax]]. The primary skill and labor used in the industry is [[beekeeping]].
-Before you can have a beekeeping industry, you must logically have bees. There are two types of bees in the game: [[honey bee]]s, which (true to their name) can be used for beekeeping, and [[bumblebee]]s, which cannot currently be so applied (this may or [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=4003#c15306 may not] change in the future). Honey bee colonies appear in any [[Freezing#Climate|non-freezing]] [[biome]] in some number, but are not necessarily guaranteed to appear in your fortress [[surroundings]] if you [[embark]] on such a biome, especially if a large part of your embark site is incompatible. However, the easiest way to test for bees is to plop down a hive, set a couple dwarfs to beekeeping and check back later. The dwarfs will find the hive faster than you will.
-If you do not have any honey bee colonies on your screen, then you obviously cannot have a beekeeping industry, at least not until a honey bee colony spawns. Honey bee colonies are one of a number of "colony" type tile features, and it is possible that all of your "slots" are occupied by other colonies. If no honey bee colony is able to spawn due to this issue, you can build [[farm plot]]s over existing colonies to "free up" space for honey bee ones, or [[dirt road]]s in the case of colonies on the edge of the map. <s>Whether or not this is worth the effort is a different story.</s> It is very much worth the effort for the glorious mead.
+== Setup ==
-Once you are sure you have a colony of bees, the next step is to create an artificial [[hive]], either from [[stone]] or [[wood]] at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]], from [[ceramic]]s at a [[kiln]], from [[glass]] at a [[glass furnace]], or from [[metal]] at a [[metalsmith's forge]]. Hives are [[tool]]s stored in the [[finished goods]] [[stockpile]], and can be {{k|b}}uilt by a [[beekeeper]] using the {{k|Alt}}+{{k|h}} [[hotkeys|hotkey]]. In order to be productive, a hive must be constructed on or adjacent to a [[tile]] that is [[Tile attributes|above ground]]. Dwarves will install colonies in hives installed underground, and such colonies will grow and allow splitting off new colonies, but they will not produce honey.
+=== Finding wild bees ===
-Once a hive is installed, it is automatically toggled to "install colony when ready", which will generate an "Install Colony in Hive" job onto the [[manager|job list]], unless the player specifies otherwise (with {{K|q}}-{{K|c}}). Hives can have colonies installed into them from preexisting wild colonies or from hives that are ready to split (more on that later); the beekeeper will walk to the location of the colony, pick it up and bring it to the built hive. Again, if there are no wild honey bee colonies on your map, no colony can be installed until there is one. It may be more sensible to build a single hive and then see if a beekeeper can find a colony to fill it with rather than go searching for one beforehand if it is uncertain whether or not there are any honey bees on the map. It will take a while until it is certain that the beekeeper does not have a colony available to collect and isn't just doing other stuff; if there is no available colony, the "install colony in hive" job will not cancel but rather stay "inactive" indefinitely.
+Wild colonies of honey bees {{Tile|·|6:1}} must be present on the map. Since live [[vermin]] cannot be bought during [[embark]], wild bees are necessary to start beekeeping. Colonies of honey bees can appear in any [[Freezing#Climate|non-freezing]] land [[biome]], which excludes mountains, glaciers, and tundras. While they are common in places they appear ({{token|FREQUENCY|c|100}}), bees are not {{token|UBIQUITOUS|c}}, thus are not guaranteed to appear in every [[region]].
+[[Bumblebee]]s cannot be used in beekeeping.<sup>[http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=4003#c15306 &#91;1&#93;]</sup> They do possess their own version of honey, royal jelly, wax, and even mead, all of which are unobtainable in normal gameplay.
+Honey bees are one of the {{token|VERMIN_SOIL_COLONY|c}} creatures, which includes bumblebees, [[ant]]s, and [[termite]]s. Colonies of honey bees appear randomly on the surface ground as {{Tile|○|7:1}}. Maps have a hard limit to how much wild colonies can appear simultaneously. If new colonies stop appearing, it means this limit has been reached. Therefore, honey bee colonies might be unable to spawn because the "space" is occupied by other vermin colonies. Building [[dirt road]]s over existing colonies frees up space for new ones to generate.
+If a colony cannot be found after searching, set up a single hive and leave it for about a year as a last-ditch effort. Beekeepers will immediately be able to find an accessible honey bee colony that may have gone unnoticed or spawned inconspicuously. Occasionally check the hive for live bees by viewing the building with {{k|t}} from the menu.
+=== Building hives ===
+{{Main|Hive}}
+{| class="wikitable floatright"
+|+ Workshop and labor requirements
+! Material !! Workshop !! Labor
+|-
+| [[Ceramic]] || [[Kiln]] or [[magma kiln]] || [[Pottery]]
+|-
+| [[Glass]] || [[Glass furnace]] or [[magma glass furnace]] || [[Glassmaking]]
+|-
+| [[Metal]] || [[Metalsmith's forge]] or [[magma forge]] || [[Metalcrafting]]
+|-
+| [[Stone]] || [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]] || [[Stonecrafting]]
+|-
+| [[Wood]] || [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]] || [[Woodcrafting]]
+|}
+Hives {{Tile|▬|6:1}} are a [[tool]]. They can be made in a variety of hard materials from their respective [[workshop]]s and [[labor]]s. Beekeepers themselves do not make them. Hives are stored in [[finished goods]] [[stockpile]]s. They can be built by opening the [[building|{{k|b}}uilding]] menu and either selecting {{DFtext|Hive|7:1}} or pressing {{k|Alt + h}}. They can be built on any hard surface, both indoors and outdoors. Citizens with beekeeping enabled are needed to build them.
+[[Tile attributes]] affect honey production. In order for hives to produce, they must be built adjacent to (or on) an above ground tile. Subterranean hives can still store colonies that can be used later for splitting, but they cannot produce anything. Hives are marked as having either {{DFtext|Outdoor|2:1}} or {{DFtext|No outdoor|4:1}} access; this is referring to the above ground and subterranean attributes, not the outside and inside attributes. Hives can produce normally in both outside and inside tiles. So long as hives are placed aboveground, they can be completely enclosed with constructions from outside while still creating products, allowing beekeepers to work safely at all times.
 == Hive management ==
-Once there is a colony (of 10,000 to 20,000 bees) in your hive, you have two options:
-* You may toggle the hive (using {{K|q}}-{{K|g}}) so that the product is not automatically gathered. This will prevent your dwarves from collecting the products but at the same time preserves the colony, which will keep growing, so that new colonies can be split off it regularly and placed in additional hives. Assuming you have spare hives built and available, this is the option you set your hives to in order to grow them.
-* Or you can choose to have the hive harvested, causing a beekeeper to approach the hive about nine months later to transfer the [[royal jelly]] into an empty [[jug]] and to make the [[honeycomb]] available, so that it can be moved to storage. This is the production option; the hives will produce things for you at a steady rate, but the harvesting destroys the colony in the hive; it can then be repopulated by a colony ready for splitting.
-Note: The colony in a hive set to "collect products" will still grow, but splitting off a new colony only becomes possible shortly before the hive is ripe for harvesting, and harvesting will always destroy the entire colony, whether it is ready to split or not. Consequently, dwarves will sometimes replenish hives from colonies set to "collect", but not reliably. To sustain a beekeeping industry without tedious micro-management, a healthy number of "breeding" hives are needed which are not allowed for collection.
+Managing hives is fairly automated. Beekeepers will perform most of the necessary jobs on their own when available. There are two options in the building settings that can be toggled to control beekeepers from installing colonies or from gathering products in a hive. Hives are set by default to allow colony installation and product gathering.
-Beekeeping as an industry currently doesn't produce as many products as it really should to be worthwhile. In addition, there is no way to tell beekeepers to prioritize fortress hives over wild ones for colony installation (except perhaps by using a [[burrow]]) - they will often wander far out into the map without even the [[ambusher]]'s [[crossbow]]s for self-protection.
+In the [[job list|{{k|j}}ob list]], two notable beekeeping jobs are:
-===Examining hives===
+* {{DFtext|Install Colony In Hive|3:0}} – when a beekeeper installs a colony to a new hive.
-Interacting with a hive ({{K|q}}) will show:
+* {{DFtext|Collect Hive Products|3:0}} – when a beekeeper gathers the products from a hive.
-* Which options have been set for that hive (install colony or don't, gather products or save for split).
+=== Examining hives ===
+Hovering the cursor near a hive in the building settings menu ({{k|q}}) will display:
+* Which options have been set for that hive:
+** {{k|c}}: {{DFtext|Install colony when ready|7:1}} or {{DFtext|Do not install colony|7:1}}.
+** {{k|g}}: {{DFtext|Gather any products|7:1}} or {{DFtext|Do not gather products|7:1}}.
 * Whether it has {{DFtext|Outdoor access|2:1}} or {{DFtext|No outdoor access|4:1}}.
-* If the hive is {{DFtext|Ready to be split|2:1}}.
+* If the hive is {{DFtext|Ready to be split|2:1}} or {{DFtext|Not ready to be split|0:1}}.
+* If there are too many colonized hives on the map (due to a [[#Limit|limit]]).
+To see if a hive has a colony, use the "view i{{k|t}}ems in buildings" menu. If a colony is present, it will show a [[stack]] of live honey bees inside a built hive. It will also show if the hive contains a honeycomb or royal jelly. To know how many hives are currently built on the map, open the {{k|b}}uilding menu and look for the number next to the "Hive" button.
-If interacting with the hive shows {{DFtext|Not ready to be split|7:0}} then it might mean it has a colony too small to be split, or that it has no colony at all.  To see if a hive has a colony, uses "view items in buildings" ({{K|t}}), which will show an item [[stack]] of thousands of bees if there's a colony.  {{K|t}} will also show if the hive has a honey comb or lump of royal jelly.
+=== Colony installation ===
-===Artificial hive limits===
+Beekeepers automatically haul colonies to new hives as long as they have access to a wild colony or another colony that is ready to be split from another hive. They must have their setting set to {{DFtext|Install colony when ready|7:1}}. Hives set to {{DFtext|Do not install colony|7:1}} will not accept new colonies, even after existing colonies are destroyed. If the settings change or the hive gets slated for removal before the beekeeper reaches the hive to install a new colony, then the job gets cancelled, and the hauled colony is removed from the beekeeper.
-If your fortress has more than 40 inhabited artificial hives, but less than 60, then interacting with a hive ({{K|q}}) will show:
-{{Gametext|Too many hives|6:1}}
+Beekeepers usually go for the closest available colony to install, whether it's a wild colony or a colony in a hive. Assigning beekeepers to [[burrow]]s can prevent them from seeking other hives.
-{{Gametext|* Output restricted|6:0}}
-Presumably this means that existing artificial hives grow more slowly. {{Verify}}
+=== Splitting colonies ===
-Having more than 40 or more than 60 inhabited artificial hives does not appear to prevent new wild hives from appearing, and these can still be transferred to empty artificial hives.
+Colonies can split in three months after installation. A split-able colony is indicated in the building settings as {{DFtext|Ready to be split|2:1}}. Splitting colonies produce new colonies that are installed to other hives, thereby increasing the colony count. In order to split the colony, an empty hive and a beekeeper must be present. A beekeeper will perform a splitting automatically if an empty hive is set to allow colony installation. After splitting, beekeepers haul the new colony to an empty built hive. Doing this leaves the original hive populated, and after another three months, it will become ready for splitting again.
-If your fortress has 60 or more inhabited artificial hives, then interacting with a hive ({{K|q}}) will show:
+Splitting a colony does not reset the honeycomb and royal jelly production. [[Forbid]]ding a hive or its colony will not prevent beekeepers from using the hive's colony for splitting. If a hive is slated for removal but has not been removed yet, then the split-able colony inside can still be used for installation.
-{{Gametext|Too many hives|4:1}}
+=== Gathering products ===
-{{Gametext|* No output|4:1}}
-Presumably this means that existing artificial hives no longer grow, or that grown hives can't be split.
+Hives containing colonies produce a single honeycomb and royal jelly. Honeycombs and royal jelly are "part" of the building, as indicated by the {{DFtext|[B]|1:1}} symbol next to their names when viewing the building's items. When a beekeeper gathers them, the items are released from the hive, which allows a food hauler to carry the items to a stockpile. An empty [[jug]] is required to gather the products, since royal jelly must be stored in a container.
-==Products==
+Hives must set to {{DFtext|Gather any products|7:1}} for beekeepers to go and gather its products. A honeycomb and royal jelly must both be present in a hive before they can be gathered. When these requirements are met, a beekeeper will automatically find an empty jug and gather the products for hauling. Beekeepers usually go for the closest accessible hive to gather first. If the settings change or the hive gets slated for removal before the beekeeper reaches the hive to collect the products, then the job gets cancelled, and the jug is stored back.
-Harvesting a hive produces two items, one of which is a lump of [[royal jelly]], which must be collected in an empty [[jug]]. Royal jelly is a liquid [[food]] item, and so can only be used in [[cook]]ing [[prepared meal]]s, and only if another, solid food item is included in the meal. Every harvest will result in a single jug filled with jelly. The other item produced by a harvest job is the [[honeycomb]], which is a little more complicated to process: it is considered a [[wax]] [[tool]] and doesn't have any direct application, but when [[presser|pressed]] at a [[screw press]] produces two products, one jug filled with [[honey]] and a [[wax]] press cake, both of which are handled as food items for storage.
-Harvesting a hive requires a jug (i.e. you cannot harvest the honeycomb alone), as does pressing the honeycomb; carrying the products to their destination [[stockpile]] or production point is considered an [[item hauling]] job unrelated with the beekeeping labor, so after being harvested by a beekeeper they will be left at the foot of the hive until someone comes by to haul them off, unless the beekeeper has item hauling enabled themselves (in which case they'll drag it to the nearest applicable stockpiles). The same is true of honeycomb pressing.
+The gathering process always destroys the colony inside the hive. The colony disappears instantly when destroyed. A new colony must be installed every time the products are gathered in order for the hive to produce more. To avoid colony extinction from gathering products, it is recommended to save a few hives just for splitting by changing their settings to not gather products. This would ensure a permanent supply of bees at all times.
-[[Honey]] can be cooked into a meal or brought to a [[still]] and processed with a [[barrel]] or [[large pot]] into mead, the only non-plant-based alcoholic drink in the game. [[Wax]], meanwhile, can be processed into various wax [[craft]]s by a [[wax worker]] at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]]. Wax crafts are not particularly valuable - they have a [[material value]] of one, the same as [[wood]] and non-[[flux]] [[stone]] - but they're something.
+=== Limit ===
-==Bugs==
+There is a soft limit of 40 colonies. Empty hives, wild colonies, and hauled colonies do not count to this limit. When the number of colonies on the map reach over 41, honeycomb and royal jelly no longer have a 100% possibility of spawning six months after installation. If the colony does not produce a honeycomb or royal jelly, then players must wait another six months before it has a chance to produce again. The likelihood of spawning affects products individually, so it is possible that a honeycomb appears while royal jelly does not, and vice versa. The soft limit does not effect colonies that were installed before the limit was passed. Hives that contain colonies will have the following warning in the building settings when the soft limit is exceeded:
-* Filled [[Jug]]s may be stored in [[bin]]s as [[finished goods]], preventing the use of their contents in the food industry.{{bug|4229}}
-* Stacks of [[honey bee]]s in their hives can be [[wear|mangled]] by [[fire|forest fires]], but will still live, resulting in some odd descriptions.{{bug|4101}}
+<div style="background: {{fgcolor|0:0}}; width: 12em;">
-{{D for Dwarf}}
+{{DFtext|Too many hives|6:1}}<br/>{{DFtext|* Output restricted|6:0}}
-* And of course, the bees themselves are truly outstanding bugs.
+</div>
+The maximum limit of active colonies for honey production is 59. When the colony count reaches 60, no more hive products appear. It also resets all ongoing production, so any colony that was in the process of producing must wait at least six months again to produce honeycomb and royal jelly after the max limit is brought back down. When the max limit is reached, the warning message in the building settings reads:
+<div style="background: {{fgcolor|0:0}}; width: 12em;">
+{{DFtext|Too many hives|4:1}}<br/>{{DFtext|* No output|4:0}}
+</div>
+The limits do not affect the spawning of wild colonies, nor do they alter the amount of time needed for colonies to become ready to split.
+The total number of colonies can be checked in the [[stocks]] under "Small live animals" and hitting {{k|Tab}} to display individual stacks. Each stack represents a single colony. The number of colonies can exceed 60 by installing colonies into new hives (by splitting or collecting wild bees), but nothing is gained from doing this. To lower the number of colonies, either dismantle colonized hives, [[dump]] the colony, or allow beekeepers to gather existing products in the hive, which destroys the colony. To attain high output efficiency, keep the number of active hives below 41.
+=== Removing hives ===
+Built hives can be removed using the building menu ({{k|q + x}}). A beekeeper is required to remove the hive. After the building is removed, the item is carried back to a finished goods stockpile by an item hauler. Hives can also be destroyed by [[building destroyer]]s and [[cave-in]]s. It is unknown if [[evil weather]] and [[temperature]] have any destructive effect on the building or colony.{{verify}}
+Deconstructing a hive releases the colony inside (it cannot be retrieved), as well as dropping any honeycomb, royal jelly, or jug left inside. Fallen honeycombs and jugs can be hauled back, but spilled royal honey cannot be hauled.
+== Production and processing ==
+Six months after installing a colony, a hive produces one [[honeycomb]] {{Tile|∞|6:1}} and one [[royal jelly]] {{Tile|≈|7:1}}. Products have a 100% chance of spawning, unless the colony count exceeded the limit. Only one honeycomb and royal jelly will spawn at a time, and no further products will appear until they are gathered from the hive. The colony size does not affect the output speed. In addition, the [[surroundings]], [[plant]]s, [[weather]], and the [[season]]s do not affect production.
+Royal jelly is a liquid [[food]]. It is used as an ingredient in [[prepared meal]]s, but it can only be cooked if another solid food item is included in the meal.
+Honeycombs are classified as tools, and are stored with other finished goods. As an intermediate product, honeycombs do not have any applications on their own, but when [[presser|pressed]] at a [[screw press]], it produces two items: [[honey]] {{Tile|≈|6:0}} and pressed [[wax]] (or wax cake) {{Tile|≈|6:1}}, both of which are stored in food stockpiles. To press a honeycomb, add a new task in a screw press and select "Press honey from honeycomb" ({{k|h}}), or search and select "Press honey from honeycomb" in the [[manager]] screen. An empty jug is needed for the job to store the honey.
+Honey, like royal jelly, is a liquid food that can be cooked into a meal. Additionally, honey can be brought to a [[still]] and brewed into [[alcohol|mead]], the only obtainable non-plant-based alcoholic drink. Wax can be processed into various [[craft]]s by a [[wax worker]]. Wax crafts have a [[material value]] of one.
+== Bugs ==
+* Stacks of honey bees in their hives can be [[wear|mangled]] by forest [[fire]]s, but will still live, resulting in some odd descriptions.{{bug|4101}}
+* Filled jugs may be stored in [[bin]]s as finished goods, preventing the use of their contents in the food industry.{{bug|4229}}
+{{Industry}}
 {{Category|Guides}}
 {{Category|Industry}}
-{{Industry}}