What the hell with beehives ? Let's figure it out !

[Tonkyhonk]

I think you need to have honey still in it,

Think this is true. (Or, beehive will not produce (make new) wax unless there is a surplus* (overflowing) of honey in the beehive.)
* could be just having some honey stored in the beehive without it overflowing yet. (kinda hard to proof this by observation testing.)

i usually collect honey before harvesting wax, so whether honey is left or not should not matter to harvest wax.

i take honey first and check its quality, and i only take wax when the honey quality is satisfactory (except for when i need any q wax or accumulated too many), because as far as i know, the quality of wax you harvest is exactly the same as the quality of honey you just harvested. i leave wax inside the hive when the honey quality is low, and harvest later, and the wax quality is always the same as the honey quality you harvest later.
at least, that is what i have been experiencing since last world.

[Cynry]

Here comes the latest results !

The beehive of my waxfarm saw its production quality raise slowly, up to 18. I don't think any honey is needed for wax production, but can't confirm at the moment. Overflowing is definitely not needed.
I installed a new beehive right next to the last one with my last harvest of straw. Not much better, but overall +3 quality of straw used. And BAM, q35 wax right off the bat.

It doesn't make any sense, but oh well, I'm happy with what I have.

Still, a pattern emerges. The one time before this one that my beehive produced "top" quality right off the bat was when it was placed under the influence of an existing hive. Same with this one. When I built the beehive not under any influence (except maybe hemp bud, but that's not the point), quality seemed to start from scratch.
This need further testing, and as I don't want to screw my wax production, I'm not gonna do it for a while.

Edit: Dude that posted before me got some interesting informations that makes sense. We're making good progress, this should end up in the wiki sometimes.

[Stormfeather]

I'm not getting what your trying to convey here.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to be overflowing,

the only three pieces of wax I've gotten were from hives that I left honey sit in before collecting it.

".. only .. wax .. were from hives that I left honey sit in before collecting it."

To me, "overflowing" means the hive is filled up completely with honey, and any more produced goes to waste (or gets turned into wax). So I've had honey in my hives, but not the full amount they could hold, and gotten wax.

[Omniwar0801]

hey so i was reading this post and i thought to myself "this would be great if i could get wax" i have a beehive and i can harvest honey from it but no wax.

I have the candlemaking skill as well.

Am i missing something?

[MagicManICT]

hey so i was reading this post and i thought to myself "this would be great if i could get wax" i have a beehive and i can harvest honey from it but no wax.

I have the candlemaking skill as well.

Am i missing something?

Time. More crops. I wasn't getting any wax at all myself and then started leaving honey in the hive unless I needed it. The next day I started getting wax and get a couple a day with only about 1/4 to 1/3 crop coverage. I can't be sure if it was just leaving the honey or I just wasn't waiting long enough for production to start.

As a side note, I was browsing through the Dwarf Fortress forums about beekeeping. (Those that play it know this was just added with the new release.) Someone posted up a bunch of facts about beekeeping such as it takes about 8 pounds of honey for bees to make any wax. It very well could be that hives were set up so that they won't produce wax until so much honey has been produced. I'm just making a rough stab at the issue given what I've experienced and read here. (Which is what a few others have stated as well.)

[mvgulik]

i usually collect honey before harvesting wax, so whether honey is left or not should not matter to harvest wax.

The harvesting order of the honey and/or wax will of course not effect what is already inside the beehive.
"Or, beehive will not produce (make new) wax unless there is a surplus"
Harvesting: Is just taking out the honey/wax that is currently stored (available for harvesting) in the beehive.
--- --- ---

To me, "overflowing" means the hive is filled up completely with honey, and any more produced goes to waste (or gets turned into wax). So I've had honey in my hives, but not the full amount they could hold, and gotten wax.

Aha.
Checking my knowledge/point's_of_view.
- beehive (gui/graphic) only has two stages.
- - 1) no honey to be harvested. (default)
- - 2) has honey that can be harvested -> honey flowing out beehive animation. -> ergo: "unless there is a surplus* (overflowing)"
- as far as I know there is no separate (gui/graphic) indicating when a beehive is full. (seems only detectable by using a secondary beehive.)

Obviously we where taking about two different stages here. So no wonder we did not match up.
--- --- ---

Here comes the latest results !

Interesting.

[Tonkyhonk]

The harvesting order of the honey and/or wax will of course not effect what is already inside the beehive.
"Or, beehive will not produce (make new) wax unless there is a surplus"
Harvesting: Is just taking out the honey/wax that is currently stored (available for harvesting) in the beehive.

let me rephrase, i collect honey whenever i see the honey flowing animation and i dont usually let honey sit inside the hive for too long while im logged in and at my farm, and i collect wax whenever the honey quality is satisfactory.
and i still get wax, maybe because i am not logged in 24/7 and honey does stay in the hive while im off, or maybe other players are too inpatient to wait for wax to come by or im too patient, i have never felt like im getting no wax like others often whine.
however, considering the real life beeswax production, maybe leaving honey inside the hive for long time may yield more wax than harvesting honey at once as i do. no proof whether i get as much as others or not, or more or less than others since i do not keep records on such.

what im trying to say is, "collecting honey too much" does not mean you get no wax from the hive.

[mvgulik]

Clear. Thanks.

[powlius]

Hello, I have big mysteries with beehives and wax ql, and need help. I have 2 farms with crops ql60-70 and beehive about 35+ and 45+. (their radius did not stick, they are a bit away from each other)
35+ gives me 41+ ql wax, and the better one gaved me ql20 until i collected honey, then it gave me 24, I collected honey again, now it gives me about 29, what the hell? Any suggestions? tried to change them, no effect...

[Cynry]

Well, it seems like there's 2 way a hive can produce wax/honey. Either by starting at low q and slowly raising up to its max q, or either by starting straigth to its max quality.
We're not sure yet how this thing work. Can you tell if the beehive that started at its max quality was placed inside the range of another hive ? Maybe it replaced an other one ?
The one that started with low q, was it on a new spot, which means that no beehive was there before, neither is it in range of another hive ?

This is my experience so far, if it matches with yours, we may have something...