Expanded Beekeeping

EXPANDED BEEKEEPING

 

Expanded Beekeeping is a Vanilla+ expansion to the base-game beekeeping system. It separates bee population management from resource production, adds meaningful structure to progression, and makes interacting with bees a more deliberate risk/reward activity instead of a passive routine.

Rather than harvesting isolated skeps, players now manage colonies through brood boxes and apiaries. Bee populations must be established and maintained before resources can be produced, and bees are significantly more aggressive when disturbed. Proper tools (especially hive smokers) are required to work safely. The goal is not to replace vanilla beekeeping, but to add depth, planning, and tension while staying close to existing mechanics and balance.

The mod adds four new blocks/items and lightly adjusts base-game behavior to support them.

 

Brood box:

Brood boxes are used to house and manage a bee population. Like vanilla skeps, they require nearby flowers and an existing bee colony (such as a wild hive, skep, or another populated brood box) to become viable. An empty hive frame must be inserted for bees to begin building broodcomb. Once a frame becomes brooded, the brood box is considered populated. Brooded frames can be removed at any time, allowing bee populations to be moved or transferred between locations.

 

Apiary:

Apiaries are where beeswax and honeycomb are produced. An apiary must be placed on top of a populated brood box to function. It contains four hive frame slots, which bees will fill with beeswax and eventually honeycomb over time. Beeswax frames can be inserted directly to speed up honey production, allowing players to optimize their workflow.

 

Hive frames:

Hive frames are the core resource container of the system. They can hold beeswax, honeycomb, or broodcomb, all of which can be harvested with a knife. Frames can be freely moved between brood boxes and apiaries, but removing a frame will reset its production progress. This makes frame management an important part of colony efficiency and logistics.

 

Hive smokers:

Hive smokers are used to pacify aggressive bees. In Expanded Beekeeping, wild hives, skeps, and brood boxes are far more hostile. Bees will attack players who linger nearby or attempt to interact with hives, including picking up skeps, breaking hives, or removing frames. Holding or placing a lit smoker near a hive prevents attacks. Smokers require dry grass as fuel and can be ignited with a torch or firestarter, staying lit for a limited time. They can also be held in the offhand so that you can use it while moving and harvesting frames.

Important: All smoker variants are functionally identical. Metal type is cosmetic only.

 

Notes:

This mod is intended as a lightweight expansion rather than a full overhaul, and should fit well into Vanilla+ modpacks.

This is an early release and may have edge cases or compatibility issues with other mods. If you encounter bugs, please report them with as much detail as possible.