–Wurt
Bees are neutral Mobs that spawn from 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.
When killed, they drop either 1 Honey or Stinger and increase the player's Naughtiness by 1 point.
Bees can be caught with Bug Net. Starving bees can be fed with food, like rot.
The optimal way to get large number of bees would be to burn bee boxes and put out the fire with Ice Flingomatics. All the bees evacuated from bee boxes will be normal bees that are available to capture, and they if they captured quickly, no killer bees will spawn.
Behavior
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 for Bee Boxes. If there are no Flowers nearby or if all Flowers are occupied, Bees will sometimes simply land on the ground and wait.
Peaceful bees do not cross ocean or non-enclosing walls, except to return to their hive at night. All Bees ignore completely enclosing walls, which is different from how Lavae work (it works to enclose each Lava Pool individually). Aggroed bees always ignore walls. If the wall has a door and the door is open during a bee's pathfinding, that bee will ignore the wall for a bit and fly over it, even if the door is closed during the actual flyover. In spring, a normally wall-respecting Bee can aggro on something across a wall, then fly over the wall to fight it.
Bees appear red in Spring. However, they can still be used for building Bee Boxes. Red Bees and Killer Bees can be distinguished based on their behaviour and origin. Red Bees would be going between the flowers and can only originate from Beebox and normal bee hive. On the other hand, Killer Bees is either flying after their target, or returning to hive. Red bees are hostile to most other mobs, and players within 4m.
When harvesting Honey from a Bee Box any Bees inside will aggro and attack, but those already outside will not. It's perfectly safe to harvest a Bee Box if all the Bees are outside, or in winter when bees are dormant.
Homeless Bee
When a bee is caught or its hive destroyed, its link to the hive is severed and it cannot return (even when freed), making it a homeless bee. When no player is within about 80m, the bee is unloaded and does nothing. So long as a player is within 80m, homeless bees behave as follows:
Instead of returning to the hive after pollinating 6 flowers, a homeless bee will plant a new Flower after a 0-20 random landings. Unlike regular bees, homeless bees keep their pollination counter overnight, so that if they pollinate 5 flowers one day, they only need to pollinate 1 the next day before being able to plant a new flower. Homeless Bees continue to pollinate Flowers through Dusk and Winter, but sleep at night on the ground.
Each bee may plant 0-2 flowers per day to an eventual average maximum density of about 1 flower per tile (some times may have up to 2 flowers while others are empty). In addition, a single homeless bee, given 6 flowers in a clump, may pollinate a few, then fly off for days before it randomly arrives back to find the next unpollinated flower. This technique is only useful for having many homeless bees spread flowers lightly over a biome. For packing a few flowers in tightly next to a beehive, catch more butterflies and plant them manually.
To propagate Evil Flowers this way, pick every flower in a relatively isolated biome leaving 6 or more evil flowers. If 6 evil flowers are not available, some normal flowers may be used to get started, but that decreases the chance for the bee to plant an evil flower and it will take longer. Release 10-40 bees. Remain nearby over the course of many days and the bees will sparsely cover the loaded area, which is about 80m around the player if the player has been stationary throughout, with Evil flowers. If any normal flowers were used, weed them out as Evil Flowers replace their ranks, until no normal flowers remain.
Killer Bee
–Wurt
Killer Bees are an aggressive variant of Bees. They spawn from regular Beehives, Killer Bee Hives, and Bee Boxes.
Killer Bees will attack anything that damages a Beehive or a Killer Bee Hive. All Bees, inside the hive, emerge as Killer Bees and attack, but any Killer Bees that were not in the hive will ignore the threat unless the target fights back.
Killer Bees can also be caught with bug net, however, they are generally useless as materials, but can be relocated to assist in combat.
Killer Bees are hostile towards almost all creatures except flying Birds, Mosquito, Poison Mosquito, Butterfly, Scorpion, Weevole, Glowfly, Glowfly Cocoon and Rabid Beetle, and players within 8m.
Combat
Both types of Bees defend fellow member of the same hive; this occurs when a Killer Bee or worker Bee is attacked or caught with a Bug Net. Bees already outside help if they are within 30m 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 do not assist. However, homeless Bees do assist any hive and vice versa; any hive will aid a homeless Bee for up to 10 members combined.
Single bee or killer bee is easy to fight, because they are vulnerable to stun lock in single combat.
Bees and killer bees in group, can be fought by grouping them as one, kite by hitting once and retreat. Area of effect damage, like abigail and bramble husk are effective against groups of bees. Lureplants can also help kill groups of bees.
Bees and killer bees has longer damage delay in , and hence player can directly run through them without taking damage.
Usage
Tips
- Bees and Killer Bees do not automatically target Wormwood as of the Reap What You Sow update, and they also avoid from attacking even when a Bee Box is harvested if player unlock Bee Kind skill.
- In combat, Killer Bees are actually weaker than normal Bees, as they have a lower attack speed.
Trivia
- Wickerbottom refers to normal Bees as Apis mellifera, or the Western/European Honeybee, and comments that they are rather large.
- While the scientific name of Killer Bees is not specifically mentioned, the existence of the "Apidae Maxwellius Red" Silk Loungewear skin suggests that Apis maxwellius would be the proper name for them. Apidae is the family for bees, and Maxwellius most likely refers to Maxwell's role in their creation.
- Given Bees in Don't Starve don't kill themselves after stinging, their large abdomen and their small hive size, it's more likely that they're a variant of Bumblebee.
- When WX-78 examines a Bee, they will refer to it as a "drone" and as a male. This is incorrect, as real Honey Bee drones don't have stingers and don't collect pollen or participate in making honey. Instead, their role is to mate with the Queen Bee. Real worker bees are female and have the stingers. Woodie and Winona get this fact right.
- A real killer bee is a hybrid of the African Honey Bee and the European Honey Bee. It is an invasive species in North America.
- Bees will still land on Flowers even if the Flowers are on fire.
- Despite Wickerbottom's examination quote, Killer Bees do not cause Poisoning in Shipwrecked DLC.
Bugs
- Both Bees and Killer Bees can still be "caught" after they've been killed, if a Bug Net is used while close to the Bee's corpse, though it will disappear from the inventory soon after (unless there is at least one Bee or Killer Bee in the inventory before capturing the corpse).
- A Bee or Bees sometimes get stuck in one spot during dusk and night, when they are supposed to hide in their Hives or Bee Boxes. This can sometimes occur when a wall is in the Bee's way (even when there's an opening somewhere).
- Occasionally, Bees will go through walls no matter the tier. To fix this place 2 rows of walls and upgrade to tier 3.
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