Bee Box

Don't Starve

DST

“Bees!”

–Wilson

“Come on fat bees, make me honey!”

–Willow

“Many bees!”

–Wolfgang

“They shall labor so I can steal.”

–Wendy

“WORK HARDER, BEES”

–WX-78

“A crude apiary.”

–Wickerbottom

“Buzzers!”

–Woodie

“It holds my bees.”

–Maxwell

“A factory for industrious insects.”

–Wagstaff

“A sweet böx öf wee warriörs.”

–Wigfrid

“It's a box with bees in it.”

–Webber

“That box has bees in and around it.”

–Walani

“Home of the honeymakers!”

–Warly

“Thar be bees.”

–Woodlegs

“A HOUSE OF YUM YUM MAKERS”

–Wilba

“Buzz home!”

–Wormwood

“A box of honey just waiting to happen.”

–Wheeler

“It's like an assembly line in there. Busy!”

–Winona

“A box full of bees would make a great prank.”

–Wortox

“Home for stingers.”

–Wurt

“Oh bees, why can't we be friends...”

–Walter

“I thought I heard some buzzing coming from over here.”

–Wanda

A Bee Box is a craftable Structure that uses Bees to accumulate Honey that can be harvested. Bee Boxes are found in the Food Tab and require a Science Machine to prototype. It takes 1 Honeycomb, 4 Bees, and 2 Boards to build. When destroyed by a Hammer, it will return 1 Honeycomb and 1 Boards, and will release any Bees inside the Box.

Bee Boxes are also prime targets for Bearger attacks.

Beehaviour

A Bee Box will (re)spawn a new Bee every 120 seconds up to the maximum population of 4 per box. All Bees will return to their box at dusk, but they will leave it during daytime one at a time every 15-30 seconds, depending on the length of daytime. During Winter, they won't leave the Box.

Technically, Bees do not have a fixed role. Instead, the same specimen can act as a worker or a fighter depending on what the current situation calls for. Every time a Bee leaves the hive, the game assigns it a role. When a Bee returns to the hive, that role gets erased. Therefore, the same specimen can fight off a threat as a Killer Bee, enter the hive, and then re-emerge as a worker to gather pollen.

If a Bee is attacked or caught with a Bug Net, all members of the hive still inside the box will emerge immediately as Killer Bees and engage. Additionally, Bees of the same hive, and homeless bees 30 Tiles of the attacked or caught bee - killer or otherwise - will join the fight. The combined number of attackers coming to help cannot exceed 10 unless the player attacks again.

When a bee box is harvested, all remaining Bees in the Bee Box will emerge as workers and attack while those that were already outside will ignore the player unless the player fights back. If it is winter, the bees will not emerge to attack when honey is harvested (but they also don't emerge to produce honey during this time).

Honey Production

The speed at which Bees gather Honey is affected by the quantity and proximity to Flowers near a Bee Box. Every time a Bee successfully pollinates 6 Flowers, it will return home and increase the Honey contained within by 1. The same Flower cannot be pollinated twice by the same Bee within one trip or by two Bees at the same time. If a Bee doesn't manage to pollinate enough Flowers before dusk, it will have to start all over the following morning. For these reasons, having less than 6 Flowers around a Bee Box halts production entirely. Ideally, 6 butterflies are caught and planted beside the bee box.

Beecause Caves have their own day and night cycle and are in a permanent summer, Bee Boxes built underground will spawn Bees. The opposite applies to the Ruins since it is considered a permanent night there. If the Bee Box is then harvested, the bees will emerge and engage the player. When they disengage, they will behave, as on the surface, according to the time of day (i.e. stay out and visit flowers or return to the box).

If the Bee Boxes are more than 20 Tiles from the player, the simplified model of Honey production will take over and Honey will be produced at a rate of 1 per day. Even when using the simplified model, the bee boxes still require flowers to be nearby.

Bee Boxes can contain anywhere between 0 and 6 Honey. Visually they progress through 4 different stages to indicate Honey saturation at 0, 1-2, 3-5 and 6 units respectively. For example, a bee box at stage 3 (almost full) may contain between 3 and 5 pieces of Honey.

The four harvest phases of the Bee Box.

Typical harvesting is a slow process with low-risk and easy repeatability. Players can use the Beekeeper Hat while harvesting Honey to reduce damage from Bees by 80%. Player can harvest from a bee box and run away until the bees stop chasing. An advanced method to harvest honey is to burn the bee box, and let an Ice Flingomatic put out the fire, to evacuate the bees before harvesting the honey. Winter is the safest time to harvest the Bees, as the Bees will not appear or attack.

Tips

Adequate protection against hostile bees.

• Bees are slow and can easily be outrun if aggravated. Their kite attacks can even create a larger distance between themselves and the player. It will only take a few seconds of running before Bees will lose interest.
  • Equipping a Walking Cane or building a Cobblestone path to the Bee Box can prove useful. A player can use the increased movement speed to harvest Honey without fear of retaliation if timed correctly.

Trivia

• In the old science system, it used to cost 100 Research Points to craft.
• The honeycomb slot on top of Bee Boxes will appear to fill with Honey as more Honey is stored within.
• The Hermit Bee Box was introduced to Don't Starve Together in the She Sells Sea Shells update.

Bugs

• Occasionally at dusk, Bees will get stuck next to their Box. New Bees do not spawn when there are stuck Bees. They will stay this way indefinitely until caught or attacked. Reloading the game will work too.
• Sometimes, Bees from the Bee Box will waste time by spinning constantly over Flowers until dusk. This can be fixed by attacking the bee or picking the Flowers that are causing the problem, or by reloading the game.

Gallery

• 

  An empty Bee Box.
• 

  Bee Box Empty (left), Bee Box Ripe (right).
• 

  Bees stuck beside their Bee Boxes.
• 

  A burnt Bee Box from the Reign of Giants DLC.
• 

  A Bee Box as seen in a drawing from Art Stream # 24.
• 

  In "Busy Bee" achivment
• 

  Original HD icon from Bonus Materials from CD Don't Starve.

Craftable ItemsStructures

DSRoGSWHamDST

DSRoGSWHamDST