Apiculture, Farming & Cooking Expansion Guide

This page explains the player-facing features of the Apiculture (Beekeeping) system and the related Cooking / Farming / Ranching / Dairy / Wax Crafting systems. All programming, installation, and developer-only details are intentionally omitted.

Apiculture (Beekeeping)

Apiculture is the science (and art) of raising honey bees, also known as beekeeping. Bees live together in colonies and make their homes in beehives. Maintaining a hive takes ongoing care, but can be very rewarding.

To start, you need a beehive deed and an area with:

Flowers
Water

These can be decorative world objects or placed items.

Beehive Stages

There are three distinct stages in a beehive’s development:

Colonizing: The hive sends out scouts to survey the area and locate flowers and water.

Brooding: Egg laying begins in full force as the hive prepares for full production.

Producing: After reaching maturity, the hive begins producing excess honey and wax.

See Beehive

Hive Health & Population

A hive is measured in two ways:

Overall health
Bee population

Overall Health States

Overall health indicates the average well-being of the colony:

Thriving: Bees are extremely healthy. Produces honey and wax at an increased rate.

Healthy: Bees are healthy and producing excess honey and wax.

Sickly: Bees are sickly and no longer producing excess resources.

Dying: If nothing is done quickly, bee population will begin to drop.

Bee Population

Bee population is a rough estimate of the number of bees in the hive. More bees can increase production, but large hives are more difficult to maintain:

More water and flowers are required to support a large hive.
The range a hive can check for flowers and water increases as the hive gets larger.
If conditions become poor enough, bees may abscond (leave), resulting in an empty hive.

Note: A single hive can support up to 100,000 bees. A healthy hive can last indefinitely, but older hives are more susceptible to infestation and disease.

Caring for a Hive

Like any living thing, bees are susceptible to outside threats such as parasites and disease. Beekeepers have multiple tools (including potions) to manage these threats and improve productivity.

Potions & Their Uses

Cure potions: Used to combat diseases such as foulbrood and dysentery. Can also neutralize excess poison.

Poison potions: Used to combat insects (example: wax moth) and parasites (example: bee louse). Use carefully—too much poison can harm the bees.

Strength potions: Used to build up the hive’s immunity to infestation and disease.

Heal potions: Used to help heal the bees.

Agility potions: Gives bees extra energy allowing them to work harder. Boosts honey/wax output and increases the range bees can search for flowers and water.

Environmental Balance (Flowers & Water)

The hive depends on nearby resources:

Flowers are used for building, food, and general colony function.
Water is required, but too much water can increase the risk of disease-carrying bacteria.
Too many flowers can bring the bees into contact with more parasites and insects.

Hive Management (Apiculture Gump)

Managing and caring for a hive is done through the Apiculture gump. The left side shows status icons you can use to monitor and respond to problems:

Production: Opens the production screen where you harvest what the hive has produced.

Infestation: A warning indicator (red or yellow) means the hive is infested. Use poison to deal with pests.

Disease: A warning indicator (red or yellow) means the hive is diseased. Cure potions help fight sickness.

Water: Shows water availability. Too much water may increase disease risk.

Flowers: Shows flower availability. Too many flowers may increase parasite exposure.

Daily Growth Check Results

The hive performs a growth check once per day (shown in the upper-right of the gump). The results may include:

Not healthy
Low resources
Population decrease
Population growth
Stage increase / resource production

Most of this information is also available via in-game help.

Honey & Wax Production

Once mature, hives can produce:

Honey
Raw beeswax

Honey can be processed into jars:

3 Honey + 1 Bottle = 1 Jar of Honey

Raw beeswax must be rendered before it can be used for crafting.

Wax Rendering

Beeswax production includes a processing step:

Hives produce Raw Beeswax
Raw beeswax must be rendered into usable Beeswax
Rendering may fail, producing slumgum waste (a by-product)

Tip: Rendering requires you to be near a heat source.

Wax Crafting

Wax crafting turns beeswax into useful items, primarily centered around candle-making and decorative wax items.

Base Wax Resources

From wax, you craft the base resources needed for candle-making, such as:

Blank candles
Candle wicks

Candle Items

Examples of craftable candle items include:

Short candles
Long candles
Colored variants (often involve dyes; may be randomly hued)
Specialty candles (may require rare components depending on your world)

Decorative Wax Items

Examples include:

Dipping sticks (decorative; may be flippable)
Blank candle piles / decorative stacks
Wax busts (a decorative bust that can take on a player’s face under special conditions)

Cooking Expansion Overview

The Cooking Expansion adds breadth and realism to food creation and consumption. It includes:

Expanded cooking tools and utensils
Reorganized food categories (meals, bowls, beverages, dairy, etc.)
Beverage systems (brewing / juices / wine in supported worlds)
Witchcraft-themed food crafting (in supported worlds)
Animal feeding/hunger integration (see Animal Husbandry)

Food Effects & Buffs

Many foods can provide bonuses such as:

Skill boosts
Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence boosts
One or multiple stat boosts depending on the food

Duration

Food bonuses last based on hunger / fill factor behavior:

The duration of boosts is tied to the food’s fill factor.
Some foods can define custom durations, but generally follow hunger timing.
Effects typically do not stack—if you already have an active boost, eating again may not refresh it until it expires.

Raw Foods

Some foods may be marked as raw and can be eaten, but raw consumption may carry risk depending on your shard’s rules.

Milk & Cheese System

This system allows milking animals and producing cheese.

Milking

Players can milk animals such as:

Cows
Goats
Sheep

Milk can be stored and then:

Bottled for drinking/recipes
Used to fill a cheese form for cheese-making

Cheese Making

Cheese-making is a timed process:

Fill a cheese form with enough milk
Begin fermentation
Harvest cheese when complete

Results can vary by player skill, with a small chance to fail and a small chance to produce special “magic” cheeses.

Cheese Types & Portions

Cheese comes in multiple forms and can often be carved into portions:

Full wheels
Large wedges
Small wedges

Magic cheese types may grant temporary stat benefits, similar to special fish-style foods.

Animal Husbandry & Ranching

Animals behave more like real animals and support deeper farming gameplay.

Realistic Animal Behavior