The Sims 4: Beekeeping (Seasons)

When The Sims 4: Seasons was released we were given a new type of flying pet to take care of and beekeeping was added to the game. Beekeeping is an awesome hobby for your sims to start and can even make your sims some money if you decide to sell the honey your bees produce. You can even improve your gardening in game if you take great care of your bees!

Getting Started With Beekeeping

To get started with beekeeping in the sims 4, you will need to purchase the Burtie’s Bee Box for §265 and it can be found in the outdoor activities section, or you can just search “bertie’s bee box” You can actually put your bee box indoors or outdoors, but it’s rare that a real human would want a bee box inside their home, but it’s up to you!

The season that your sims are in is going to affect how the bees act. Just like in real life, your bees are going to be inactive in the winter, slightly active in the spring or fall, and extremely active in the summer. This will take place whether your bees are inside or outside.

When you first start beekeeping, you’re going to get stung a few times until you can start building up a relationship with your bees. When you’re stung you’ll get an uncomfortable moodlet that will last a few hours.

Proper Bee Care

There are a number of interactions that your sims can do with Bertie’s Beekeeping Box:

Bond With Bees

Bonding with your bees will help increase your relationship with the bees and can get you to the point where you can unlock some new interactions. You should try bonding with your bees daily to keep them happy.

Collect Honey

Every 8 hours your sims will be able to collect honey, and the longer you wait the more you’ll be able to collect. At 8 hours, you can collect one jar of honey, but if you wait 24 hours you can collect 3 jars of honey at once. The honey can be different qualities and this is decided by how happy your bees are and the relationship you have with them.

Collect Swarm

When your sims develop a high enough relationship (around 30%) with their bees they can start collecting bee swarms and can get them to do various tasks.

Disturb

Using the disturb interaction on your bees will irritate them and make them angry. Some of the time you’re going to get a playful moodlet, but some of the times the bees will attack and you’ll get an uncomfortable moodlet.

Apply Mite Treatment

Your bees are going to get infested with mites often and these mites will make your bees angry. You need to apply a mite treatment to get rid of this but they will probably sting you unless you are wearing the beekeeper suit.

Bee Mood

Your bees have a social need that is kinda like regular sims, and they need to be bonded with and well taken care of. The longer you ignore your bees the less happy your bees are going to be and angry bees are more like to sting you. You need to make sure your sim is interacting with their bees by choosing bond with bees at least one time daily so that your bees will feel calm. Even though your bees aren’t producing honey in the winter, your sims can still interact with them.

Note: If you have a crocus flower within 5 tiles of your beekeeping box your bees will be calm more often and for longer.

Beekeeper Suit

Luckily, you can change your sims into a beekeeper suit that can protect your sims from getting stung. When you are giving your bees mite treatments it’s important to wear the beekeeper suit because your bees are very likely to be a bit angry and you’ll have a higher chance of getting stung.

However, you can not collect the swarm while wearing the suit or bond with your bees, so you won’t always be protected from getting stung by bees. The beekeeper suit also acts as hot weather clothing so you don’t have to worry about your sim from overheating while they are beekeeping.

Mite Infestation

There is always the possibility that your bees will become infested with mites. To get this dealt with you should put on the beekeeper suit and give your bees a mite treatment for §15. The longer your bees are infested with mites the more angry they are going to be at you meaning that they’ll will bite you way more! So make sure that you take care of your bees and their mites as soon as possible.

Bee Swarms

If you build up a large enough relationship with your bees you’ll be able to unlock the ability to collect a swarm of bees that will appear in your sim’s inventory. A bee swarm can be collect every 3 hours from each bee box that you have on your lot.

Note: A bee swarm will disappear after 5 hours of being in your household inventory, so use it wisely!

You can use a bee swarm to do a number of things for your sim:

• Pollinate Nearby Plants: This interaction is available anywhere, not just on your home lot. You can get these bees to go out and pollinate plant.
• Send to Fetch Gift: This bee interaction is great for sims that are trying to get all of the collectibles. Your bees will fly off and will return with a box that contains a collectible.
• Woo: This bee interaction can help you make friends or romantic relationships blossom faster with other sims.
• Cheer Up: You can use this bee interaction to put other sims in a better mood.
• Attack: This bee keeping interaction lets you pick another sim for your bees to attack and they will get the uncomfortable moodlet from the bee sting.
• Cheer Up Self: You can use this bee interaction to cheer yourself up if your sim is experience less than ideal moods.

Producing Honey

You can collect honey from your bee box after just 8 hours and you will be given one jar of honey. If you wait 24 hours for your bee box to be completely full you will be given 3-4 jars of honey. If you hover your mouse over the bee box you will be able to see exactly how much honey is in the box.,

You can make different honey qualities and that is dependent upon your relationship with your bees. The first few jars of honey that you collect won’t be the best quality but as you care for your bees and continue to bond with them you’ll be able to create better honey that will sell for §60.

If your sim decides to just consume the honey instead of selling it, they will receive a happy moodlet and for the next 4 hours they will be immune to weather. They could spend hours outside in a heat wave and be completely okay. You can also use your newly collected honey to make a honey cake or to brew a pot of honey tea using the Tea Magical Brewer.

Bees and Gardening

Having a beekeeping box in your garden can really improve the plants that you are growing and quickly they are able to be evolved. When you aren’t doing any specific interactions with your bees they will go out and pollinate any plans that are within 5 grid squares from the bee box.

Your bee box can also give off an aura that will add a fertilizer bonus to your plants which can help you grow plants faster and better. If you’re working toward the Freelance Botanist Aspiration, this can be helpful because you’ll reach perfect status with your plants sooner.

Since the gardening update, there is much less to do each day to take care of a garden so it’s a good idea to work on beekeeping to gain that bit of extra bonus since you now have some saved time.

Final Thoughts

Becoming a beekeeper in the sims 4, is a really awesome option for a hobby for your sims but can also make you money in the game or really assist in gardening. Have you ever tried sims 4 beekeeping? If so, did you like it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!