Bee

Bee=

Item=

Killer Bee=

Item=

"A MINDLESS DRONE. I LIKE HIM."

- WX-78

Bees are neutral insects living in Beehives and Bee Boxes. While their aggressive variant - the Killer Bee - is charged with the protection of the nest, the primary function of these normally docile creatures is Honey production. If provoked however, they do join fights to defend the hive. Bees take one blast from the Ice Staff to be frozen.

Killer Bees are an aggressive variant of Bees that are immediately hostile to the player or any other non-insect mob. They don't gather Honey, their function is protecting the hive. They spawn from regular Beehives, Killer Bee Hives and Bee Boxes. Killer Bees take one blast from the Ice Staff to bee frozen.

When killed, they drop either one Honey or one Stinger.

Behaviour
Bees are usually seen traveling between their nest and nearby Flowers during the day. They leave their nest in the morning one at a time at regular intervals and all return home at dusk or when they have collected pollen from 6 different sources. When they reach a Flower, they will usually land on it for a short time before moving on again. The closer the Flowers are to the nest, the faster the Bees will produce Honey; however, gathering rate only affects Honey contained in Bee Boxes, the amount is fixed at 3 in Beehives. If there are no Flowers nearby or if all Flowers are occupied, Bees will sometimes simply land on the ground and wait. Although they can fly over Walls when neutral, Bees cannot cross the Ocean.

When their link to a beehive is severed - either through catch-and-release or by destroying the hive, a bee will gain the ability to spawn a new Flower after pollinating a minimum of 6 different Flowers. They can't be forced to spawn Flowers like captive Butterflies, but will do so every once in a while on their own. Both Flowers and Evil Flowers can be spread in this manner, depending upon which type the bee is pollinating.

Bee

 * Unlike Killer Bees, proximity to other creatures doesn't trigger aggression.
 * They attack in response to a "cry for help" from a member of their own hive; that is if a Killer Bee or worker Bee is hit or caught with a Bug Net. Bees already outside engage from about a screen afar while those still inside all leave the hive immediately and attack regardless of distance (though they give up the chase after 8 seconds if they can't reach their target). Bees belonging to different hives don't cooperate with each other at all. Those however that don't have a home do assist any hive as if they belonged to it, and vice versa any hive will aid a hiveless bee for up to 10 members combined.


 * They ignore all attacks against their home: Regular Beehives will respond to threats with Killer Bees, the player can not attack Bee Boxes and there are no workers in Killer Bee Hives. Fire is a special case that doesn't drive the hive to attack even if the player directly hits their home with a Fire Dart for example. Instead Bee Hives eject all those inside as worker Bees while Killer Bee Hives spawn Killer Bees.


 * When harvesting honey from a Bee Box, bees still inside emerge as workers and attack while those already outside ignore the intruder and continue their normal behaviour unless the player fights back. This means that it's perfectly safe to harvest a Bee Box if all the bees are outside.

Killer Bee
Killer Bees are hostile towards almost all creatures except flying Birds and other Insects. Normally they remain inside their hive if there is no threat to fight. The following three scenarios describe their combat behaviour:


 * They attack creatures that wander too close to them. In this case no other bees assist unless their opponent fights back. The distance at which they are provoked is reasonably small, about a quarter screen away.


 * They attack in response to a "cry for help" from a member of their own hive; that is if a Killer Bee or worker Bee is hit or caught with a Bug Net. Bees already outside engage from about a screen afar while those still inside all leave the hive immediately and attack regardless of distance (though they give up the chase after 8 seconds if they can't reach their target). Bees belonging to different hives don't cooperate with each other at all. Those however that don't have a home - destroyed hive or captured and released - do assist any hive as if they belonged to it, and vice versa any hive will aid a hiveless bee for up to 10 members combined.


 * And finally they attack if their home is threatened: If the player damages a Bee Hive or attacks / wanders too close to a Killer Bee Hive. In this case all bees still inside emerge as Killer Bees and attack but those already outside ignore the threat unless the player fights back (in which case they act according to scenario two). The same behaviour holds true for harvesting Bee Boxes, except regular Bees will respond instead of Killer Bees. This means that it's perfectly safe to harvest a Bee Box or destroy a Bee Hive if all the bees are outside. Fire is a special case that doesn't drive the hive to attack even if the player directly hits their home with a Fire Dart for example. Instead Bee Hives eject all those inside as worker Bees while Killer Bee Hives spawn Killer Bees.

Bee
Bees can be found anywhere near a Beehive (which are marked on the map). The easiest way to deal with them is to use the Bug Net. When used, the Net will turn the Bee into an item in inventory, which stacks to 20. Caught Bees can be used to build Bee Boxes and Bee Mines, or Murdered by right-clicking them in inventory to produce a Stinger or Honey. Catching a Bee counts as an attack and triggers the same reaction.

To help defend against their stings, a Beekeeper Hat may be worn, which decreases the damage taken. Once hit, a Bee will be "stunlocked" and spin around for a moment before recovering. A second hit with most weapons will kill the Bee. Moving around is essential when engaging Bees with melee weapons as the swarm will follow their target for a reasonable distance before giving up, though they're quite slow.

Killer Bee
The easiest way to defeat Killer Bees is to use the Bug Net. When used the Net will turn the Bee into an item in the player's inventory, which stacks to 20. Killer Bees caught this way cannot be used to build Bee Boxes or Bee Mines, however they can be Murdered by right-clicking them in inventory to produce a Stinger or Honey. They can also bee released when other hostile animals or monsters are near to attack them. Large numbers of Bees are especially effective against Hounds and single targets, like bosses. Killer bees can be put in Chester to make a trap for enemies. Kiting a swarm of killer bees towards a group of Pengulls can also be quite effective, as the killer bees will start attacking the Pengulls and the Pengulls will kill them. If the Pengulls have not hidden their eggs by the time the killer bees reach the Pengulls, the player can also collect all the eggs safely while the Pengulls are distracted by the bees.

To help defend against stings, a Beekeeper Hat may be worn which decreases the damage taken. Once hit, a Killer Bee will be stunlocked and spin around for a moment before recovering. A second or third hit is required for most weapons to kill a Killer Bee. Moving around is essential when engaging any Bees with melee weapons as the swarm will follow the player for a reasonable distance before giving up.

To gather a Honeycomb, a Beehive must bee destroyed. Attacking a Hive will anger nearby Bees and spawn Killer Bees from the nest itself. The Hive cannot bee burned or the Honey and Honeycomb will bee destroyed along with it. If there are no bees around a hive, it is likely that the hive is filled with Killer Bees; for normal Bees to spawn again just run away until they stop the chase and most (or all) of the Killer Bees will turn into normal Bees upon reaching the Hive.

Below is the number of hits it takes with each weapon to kill Bees and Killer Bees when playing with character with a default damage modifier. The Weather Pain is not included due to the random nature of its projectile.

Reign of Giants icon.png of Giants
In the Reign of Giants DLC, all bees will turn red and become hostile during Spring, though not as hostile as Killer Bees. The normal red bees can still be caught for use in crafting recipes. You can also get bees from destroying Tumbleweed.

Trivia

 * There are unknown NPCs in the games files with only the name "Keeper", which suggest there were meek beekeeper NPCs.
 * Bees will still land on Flowers even if the flowers are on fire.
 * In the files the Killer Bee hive is called a Wasp Nest, possibly suggesting Killer Bees were originally meant to be wasps.
 * Killer Bees are technically weaker than normal Bees, as they have a lower attack speed.
 * In real life, certain bees die after they sting. This is not the case in Don't Starve, due to the bee's smooth stinger like that of a typical bumblebee.

Bugs

 * Both Bees and Killer Bees can still be "caught" after killed if the player equips a Bug Net and presses Space while close to the bee's corpse, but they will disappear from the inventory soon after.