The road to your own honey farm is not that far. However, there are a few components needed to get started in the honey business. So before we get to the perfect setup of the bee houses, let's first clarify how you can get everything you need on the way there.
With bee houses you have a strong and easy to maintain setup that will bring you money on a continuous basis. With the setup shown, you can earn over 220.000 gold in a single month just from honey. All you have to do is collect the honey and throw it into the shipping bin. So let's get started.
What You Need for the Honey Farm
As soon as you have collected enough experience points for Farming level 3, you will receive the recipe for the bee house. You will now see all the ingredients you need for crafting. Below we will go through all the ingredients one by one.
For a Bee House you need:
- 40x Wood
- 8x Coal
- 1x Iron Bar
- 1x Maple Syrup
How to get Wood
Wood doesn't need much explanation. You can use an axe to cut down trees, and wood will drop. You can chop down trees faster with an improved axe made of copper or steel, for example. You can find out everything about upgrading tools in this post:
Julian
Farming Coal
On the fifth day of the first spring, the entrance to the mine opens. From this point on, you can find coal there.
Coal can be found in the mine from level 1 onwards, but it can be farmed particularly well between levels 51-59. Coal drops with a 50% chance from the black dust sprites, which are particularly common there.
Alternatively, coal can also be produced in the charcoal kiln, you get the recipe for this at Foraging level 2. This item costs 20 wood and 2 copper bars and uses 10 pieces of wood for one piece of coal.
Production of Iron Bars
To produce iron bars, five iron ores are placed in the furnace together with a piece of coal. This then produces an iron bar.
Iron ore can be found in the mine from level 40 onwards, and is particularly common between levels 71-79. You need a furnace, which can be built for 25 stones and 20 copper ore. Copper can also be found from level 1 onwards, and is particularly plentiful on levels 31-39.
Iron bars can also be made using a recipe. With Mining level 4, you can use the crafting menu to make an iron bar from three copper bars.
How to make maple syrup
Maple syrup is extracted from maple trees under which a tapper has been placed. After nine days, maple syrup can be extracted. Maple trees look similar to oak trees, but maple trees are easily recognized by the branches in the foliage, which are not visible on oak trees.
Since we have a number of bee houses in the planning and we have to wait 9 days each time, it is advisable to produce a lot of tappers. Tappers can also be repositioned afterwards to distribute them evenly across all tree species.
The crafting recipe for a tapper consists of 40 wood and two copper bars. Just like for all other bars, five ore and coal are placed in the furnace.
Selling Prices of Honey
The selling price of honey in Stardew Valley depends on which flower the bees collect their food from. Accordingly, different honey is produced.
Depending on the season, different seeds must be planted near (within five fields) the bee houses in order to achieve the best profit. Without the appropriate plants nearby, the selling price of honey is significantly lower. Anyway, no honey is produced in winter.
The bee houses produce honey within four days. When planting a flower next to your bee houses, wild honey (selling price: 100g) will be produced until the flower is fully grown.
The Best Flower for More Profitable Flower Honey
- Spring - Blue Jazz (Jazz Seed - growing time: 7 days)
(Honey selling price: 200g) - Summer - Poppy (Poppy Seed - growing time: 7 days)
(Honey selling price: 380g) - Fall - Fairy Rose (Fairy Seed - growing time: 12 days)
(Honey selling price: 680g)
As soon as the flower has grown within range of the bee house, more expensive honey is produced. A single plant is enough for dozens of bee houses, which is something we will also take advantage of in the layout.
As long as the plant is not yet fully grown, wild honey will be produced. Boost the growth of the seed with a Speed-Gro fertilizer to get more profitable honey faster.
Artisans have the Most Expensive Goods
If you work a lot on the farm so that your Farming level increases quickly, you can choose a profession for the first time at level 5.
Here you first decide between the Rancher and the Tiller. We absolutely need the Tiller, because with Farming level 10 we then make another choice. As a Tiller, your crops are worth 10% more.
For optimal profit from your honey farm, choose the Artisan instead of the Agriculturist with Farming level 10. As an Artisan, you can sell your goods (including honey) for 40% more profit.
Perfect Bee House Layout
To save space and collect quickly, I can recommend this way of setting up the bee houses. You will need the following resources for the entire construction:
- 1810x Wood
- 353x Coal
- 44x Iron Bar
- 44x Maple Syrup
- 20x Fiber
- 1x Seed
This design consists of 44 bee houses and a single field with a flower in the middle. The diamond-shaped arrangement means the structure is perfectly adapted to the range of the bee houses.
It is also important to place a scarecrow, otherwise your single crop may be destroyed by crows.
Profit per Honey Farm by Season
If you call a unit of this layout a honey farm, the profit per honey farm can be easily determined depending on the season. Since each month lasts 28 days, seven honey harvests are possible per month. Here you can see the maximum monthly profit from 44 bee houses (with the Artisan profession):
- Spring: 80.080 g
- Summer: 146.608 g
- Fall: 221.760 g
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