Why should I start with beekeeping?

[whythisname]

I'm seeing guides and people all excited, but I never see anyone say "I love how you get lots of XXX for free" or anything along those lines.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong if it's just fun. However I'm wondering if it's fun + useful or if it's mostly just fun.

 

[SilvasRuin]

Bigger Forestry Backpacks off the top of my head. I know there's more, but that's a big one. Beewax has a lot of uses too. The refractory wax gives you a lava container made of renewable materials, so you don't have to fuss with a Liquid Transposer to get them back.

 

[DoctorOr]

Phosphorous (from the same bees as refractory wax) can be put in a squeezer with cobblestone for lava at a much lower MJ cost than a crucible.

 

[Charlie Stewart]

It really depends on your reason for playing minecraft in the long run. If you are a "builder" type, then beekeeping is useful for stained glass. If you are the "caving/exploration" type, then the backpacks are seriously useful. Also wax is a nice replacement for cactus greens in the waterproof pipe recipes.

 

[Yusunoha]

beeswax can also be used for pipe waterproofing, so you won't have to keep harvesting cactus for this. you can also use beeswax instead of coal/charcoal for torches. to be honest, doing bees is not necessary to play the game, but doing the bees can be quite some fun and take some of your time while you are waiting for other things.

 

[whythisname]

ok, thanks guys, looks like some nice benefits to me

I do like exploring and I usually raid a few villages before setting up base, so I'll snag the apiaries (that's what they're called right?) I find as well.

 

[Squigie]

Phosphorous (from the same bees as refractory wax) can be put in a squeezer with cobblestone for lava at a much lower MJ cost than a crucible.

It's better to run that cobble through a pulverizer or macerator first as phosphor yields more lava with sand.



Bee breeding, by itself, makes for an interesting mini game, and there more benefits than have been mentioned so far. Honey can be used for honeyed slices, which make your bread go further. Demonic bees produce glowstone dust. Ambrosia is a regen potion and a food, it's ingredients come from Imperial bees. Extra Bees goes even further, adding bees that produce almost every resource, from lily pads to uranium.

 

[Codex]

Gotta love the metal bees in extra bees ;P. I still need to scratch the surface of that in my game though.

 

[Zmaster27]

they just produce almost everything, with only some time and work. i personally cant wait to start getting metal bees, so i can get metal i need, without worrying about going into a mine, and focus on building/exploration

 

[Codex]

they just produce almost everything, with only some time and work. i personally cant wait to start getting metal bees, so i can get metal i need, without worrying about going into a mine, and focus on building/exploration

Dude, fully automated fast metal bees with like 10 apiaries per ore? Its crazy.

 

[DoctorOr]

Fast, long lived, nocturnal cave bees which still work in the rain pumping out metal. That's something to shoot for.

 

[Zmaster27]

thats my goal and of course massive backpacks XD

 

[Peppe]

My goal is to try out those radioactive bees. Renewable uranium... proper green energy

 

[Codex]

Infinite Ultimate Hybrid solars with those bees o.o

 

[Crimor]

My goal is to try out those radioactive bees. Renewable uranium... proper green energy

Well, uranium IS green :3

 

[whythisname]

Yeah I've been looking at the extra bees wiki. It isn't much yet, but for most types it's not hard to guess what they do. I'll probably start some apiaries in my next game First I'm going to wait what the other mod packs are going to bring though, mindcrack and Direwolf aren't bad packs, but I'm just missing a few mods in each of them.

 

[DaveSW]

I love using the mailboxes on my server, and we need to use bees for that. Even without really getting into it, dabbling with bees still can be a huge benefit.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Initially, most bee species will provide some type of comb that will produce Beeswax and Honey.

Beeswax is a generally useful thing, being able to make Pipe Waterproofing with it is good enough, but then you've also got Wax Capsules you can make out of it, which can give you a fully renewable way to mass-produce things like Bog Earth

Now, Honey by itself can be used to produce Honeyed Slices, which are an amazing food source. However, put it in a squeezer, and you get Liquid Honey, with a chance of Propolis. Now, Propolis is a generally useful thing, you can make apiarist's pipes with 'em, for example. It can also be Centrifuged into Sticky Resin. I think any purveyor of IC2 knows what to do with that. Generally, you're already going to have rubber trees, but if you get stuck in a bad spot without any rubber trees nearby, it can be quite useful to get yourself going.

This is all from the basic bees you find lying around the world. Bee Breeding can net you some truly amazing species with some very interesting drops.

 

[beekeeper12345]

I was wondering how do you make propolis

 

[Zmaster27]

it comes from certain bees... diligent, unweary, forest (?), and industrious bees make basic propolis. Tropical bees make silky propolis which can be used to help make woven bags. Or they are made by putting honey drops in a squeezer