Productive Bees in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Productive Bees builds on top of vanilla bees. On top of the usual bees, you will come across new solitary bees that live in well hidden nests in different biomes. They don't live in a hive, but their genetics let you breed new types of bees from them. Hive bees are the ones that actually produce resource combs, and they have to live in advanced hives to do it.^[1][2][3]

The mod also brings its own machines. The Centrifuge processes resource combs into resources and honey, and the Bottler bottles honey and other fluids. You also get the Catcher for catching bees automatically, the BaBee Incubator for growing baby bees, and a genetics setup built around the Gene Indexer.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

This pack includes Productive Bees 1.21.1-13.13.5.^[9]

Where it sits in the quest book

The pack's quest book covers the mod in the chapter "Generating Resources", which is in the group "Resources & Logistics". It is chapter 8 of 31 in the book and holds 99 quests. The intro quest is "Productive Bees" quest, which asks for a honeycomb and a honey bottle.^[10]

From there the quests chain on like this:^[10]

• "Beehives to Beehomes" quest comes after the intro quest. It covers advanced beehives and the Feeding Slab.^[10]
• "Honey Treats" quest and "Useful Machines" quest both come after Beehives to Beehomes.^[10]
• After Honey Treats you get "Bee Types" quest and "Getting Bees" quest. Getting Bees then leads to "Keeping The Lights Out" quest.^[10]
• After Useful Machines you get "BaBee Incubator" quest and "Auto-Catching Bees" quest.^[10]
• The nest quests, such as "Oak Nest" quest, "Reed Nest" quest and "Nether Nests" quest, all come after a quest called Nest Spawning.^[10]

The chapter goes on well beyond these. The text of 77 of its 99 quests wasn't available for this guide, so for the rest of the story, open the quest book itself.^[10]

Welcome to bees! In this pack the quest book covers Productive Bees in the "Generating Resources" chapter (group "Resources & Logistics", chapter 8 of 31). It starts with the "Productive Bees" quest quest, which asks for a honeycomb and a honey bottle. Here is the order I'd follow.^[10]

Step one: find some regular bees

The quest book says you need ordinary bees before anything else. Watery bees can sometimes be fished up in a watery biome, and feeding them Nature Essence converts them into regular bees. For their first home, the quest has you convert a Block of Bamboo into a Bee Nest with Dire's Primogel Goo. The mod's own guide also tells you to find a vanilla bee nest to get your first honey bottles and honeycombs.^[1][10]

Step two: make Bee Cages

Honey bottles are what you need to craft Bee Cage, and cages make it much easier to carry bees home. Right click a bee with a cage to catch it, and right click the filled cage on the ground to release it. Keep a few on you when you travel.^[1][11]

4× Bee CageMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any plank

Honey Bottle

any plank

Recipe id: productivebees:bee_cage

One craft makes 4 cages.

Step three: build an advanced beehive

Once you have some honeycombs, the guide tells you to build an advanced beehive and an expansion box. The hive lets you look inside and see what your bees produce. In the quest book this is "Beehives to Beehomes" quest, which also asks for a Feeding Slab. Bees still need their preferred flower nearby to make anything, and you can check that in JEI. An expansion box raises the hive capacity from 3 bees to 5.^[1][10][12]

Step four: craft Honey Treats

Honey Treat is the next quest in the chain ("Honey Treats" quest), and you will craft a lot of them. They calm angry bees and make baby bees grow up faster. Right clicking an empty nest with one starts the cooldown that lures in a new bee. For example, the "Oak Nest" quest quest says a Honey Treat lures in either a Yellow or Green Carpenter Bee.^[10][13][14]

Honey TreatMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Honeycomb
• Honey Bottle

Recipe id: productivebees:honey_treat

Step five: set up a Bottler and a Centrifuge

The "Useful Machines" quest quest asks for a Bottler and a Centrifuge (or the Powered Centrifuge). Most combs you collect need processing in a centrifuge. It gives you wax, a useful item and usually some honey, and the Bottler turns that honey into honey bottles. The pack has changed the Bottler recipe, so use this one:^[10][15]

BottlerChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Smooth Stone Slab	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	any glass blocks	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot

Recipe id: productivebees:bottler

The Powered Centrifuge recipe is also changed by the pack, and it builds on a regular Centrifuge. It works faster but needs power.^[7][10][15]

Powered CentrifugeChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Redstone	Basic Control Circuit	Redstone
Iron Ingot	Centrifuge	Iron Ingot
Redstone	Basic Control Circuit	Redstone

Recipe id: productivebees:powered_centrifuge/mekanism

Where to go next

After Useful Machines the quest book opens up the "BaBee Incubator" quest and "Auto-Catching Bees" quest quests. The "Getting Bees" quest and "Bee Types" quest quests, which come after Honey Treats, explain how to get new bees and the different bee types. Plenty of other quests in this chapter are not covered here, so check the quest book for the rest.^[10]

Productive Bees builds on top of vanilla bees, so the machines here all revolve around the same loop: bees work in a hive, produce combs, and you process those combs in a centrifuge. This section walks through each machine and how to automate it.^[1][7]

Advanced hives and expansion boxes

The advanced hive is the upgraded vanilla hive. It does not need a campfire nearby to be harvested, and you can break it and move it with the bees still inside without silk touch. Its GUI shows which bees are inside and lets you take out whatever they produced.^[16]

An expansion box raises a hive's bee capacity from 3 to 5, and it is also what lets you install upgrades. You can place it on top of the hive or next to it, but each hive can only have one.^[12][16]

Canvas Expansion BoxMod recipe

Stonecutting

• any canva expansion boxes

Recipe id: productivebees:stonecutter/acacia_canvas_expansion_box

In the stonecutter, any canvas expansion box turns into this one, which is how you swap between canvas variants.

Upgrades

Upgrades go into hives and some machines. They all start from the upgrade base. Here is what the guide says each one does:^[17]

• BaBee upgrade: in a hive, it gives the bees a small chance to breed and produce offspring on their own (bees that can't breed normally don't work with it). In a catcher, only BaBees are caught and put in cages.^[17]
• Productivity upgrade: in a hive, bees produce more combs per trip, and you can install several. In a honey generator it lowers honey consumption.^[17][18]
• Speed upgrade: in a hive, bees spend less time inside. In a centrifuge or an incubator it increases operation speed, and in a honey generator it speeds things up too.^[17][18]
• Filter upgrade: right click a bee to add it to the filter, and put the filter in a crafting grid to clear it. In a hive only the listed bees may enter, and in a catcher only they are picked up.^[17]
• Range upgrade: in a hive, it increases the operating range of Farmer and Collector/Hoarder bees by 1 per upgrade, from the default of 4. In a catcher it expands the area by 1 block in all directions. You can install several.^[6][17]
• Teleport-blocking upgrade: bees that can teleport no longer do so while living in that hive.^[17]
• Sampling upgrade: a small sample of pollinating bees is extracted with each visit. Several can share one hive for a better rate.^[17]
• Comb block upgrade: bees produce full comb blocks instead of honeycombs.^[17]
• Simulator upgrade: bees stay out of the world and their flower trip is simulated instead (see below).^[17]

Simulated hives and feeding slabs

With the simulator upgrade, the bees' flower block, or a feeding slab holding flower blocks, must sit at the foot of the hive. Put it right below the front of the hive, not blocking it.^[17]

A simulated hive only has 1 flower block position, so feeding slabs work very well with it. A slab holds 3 item blocks, which lets you have up to 3 different bees working in the hive. Lumber and Quarry bees feeding from a slab produce from a random item in it. You can also honeylog the slab to give bees regeneration.^[19]

Centrifuge and combs

Bees in advanced hives produce resource combs, and the centrifuge turns them into resources and honey. Combs can also be compressed into comb blocks for easier storage.^[7][20]

Ghostly Comb BlockMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

4 × Ghostly Comb

Recipe id: productivebees:comb_block/ghostly_comb_to_block

Example: a Ghostly Comb becomes a Ghostly Comb Block.

The centrifuge holds 10 buckets of liquid, which can be pumped out. It also automatically outputs fluid to any fluid storage block placed next to it. The Powered Centrifuge takes FE and processes faster. The centrifuge is also where you separate genes from bottled bee material.^[7]

The pack changes some centrifuge outputs. The salty comb recipe gives Salt Dust and Wax here, so check the recipe in this version rather than assuming the mod default.^[15]

Salt Dust, WaxChanged by the pack

Centrifuge (productivebees)

Recipe id: productivebees:centrifuge/dusts/honeycomb_salty

Bottler and fluid handling

The Bottler bottles honey and other fluids. You can pump honey into its side, or place it next to a centrifuge so it fills automatically. The pack changed its crafting recipe, so use this one:^[5][15]

BottlerChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Smooth Stone Slab	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	any glass blocks	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot

Recipe id: productivebees:bottler

The honey generator burns honey to produce power. You can pipe honey in, or add honey bottles, blocks and buckets in its GUI.^[18]

Breeding, catching and moving bees

• Breeding Chamber: breeds bees in a safe environment. Supply the two parent bees, their breeding items, power and empty cages for the offspring. Speed upgrades make it faster.^[22]
• Incubator: grows BaBees faster when you insert the caged BaBee with honey treats. It can also infuse an egg with a bee type gene to make a spawn egg, and only the type gene is used, so any extra genes on the treat are lost.^[8]
• Catcher: load it with cages and it catches any bee flying over it. A flower or feeding slab on top attracts bees. It accepts the BaBee, filter and range upgrades.^[6]
• Bee Jar: a display container. Use a hopper or pipe to insert a bee cage containing a bee.^[23]

The Bee Cage captures a bee when you right click it, and you release the bee by right clicking the filled cage on the ground. Releasing a bee on a valid flower sets its flower position, and releasing it on a valid hive or nest while sneaking sets its home.^[11]

4× Bee CageMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any plank

Honey Bottle

any plank

Recipe id: productivebees:bee_cage

Nests can be picked up with the bee inside, no silk touch needed. Crafting a nest with itself clears the bee and any eggs. An empty nest can attract new bees if you right click it with a honey treat to start the repopulation cooldown.^[14]

Genetics automation

1. Bottle a bee: put a bee in front of a bottler with a piston, make sure the bottler has empty bottles inside, and pull the lever.^[5][24]
2. Throw the bottled bee into a centrifuge to separate the genes from the junk.^[7][24]
3. Combine the gene with a honey treat, and feed the treat to the bee. It has a chance, based on the purity of the gene, to gain the new attribute.^[25]

Purity goes up when you combine two of the same genes or put more of the same gene onto one treat. If you are drowning in samples, the Gene Indexer is a big container that combines genes for you automatically, and it needs a redstone signal.^[4][25]

Dragon Egg Hive

The Dragon Egg Hive is a special hive for Draconic bees that lets you harvest draconic combs. Draconic bees in it need no flowers when it operates in the End, because they absorb Draconic essence from the air. Anywhere else they need another pollination source. In an ordinary advanced hive they won't produce dragon breath, and the Dragon Egg Hive does not support upgrades.^[26]

Performance and pack restrictions

Bees are entities, so pathing and AI cost more than a block would. Make sure every bee has a home and its required flower block, and keep them in an enclosure that is not too big or they start wandering off. The simulator upgrade avoids having the bee entities in the world at all.^[21]

The pack's server script also adds all Productive Bees entities to these deny tags: justdirethings:paradox_deny, justdirethings:polymorphic_target_deny and apothic_spawners:blacklisted_from_spawners. Don't plan around those mods' features with these bees.^[27]

Productive Bees sits in the "Generating Resources" chapter of the quest book (group "Resources & Logistics", chapter 8 of 31). It starts with "Productive Bees" quest, which asks for a honeycomb and a honey bottle, and from there the bee quests branch out into hives, machines, nests, breeding and upgrades.^[10]

To get your first bees, the quest says watery bees can sometimes be fished up in a watery biome and converted into regular bees with Nature Essence. For their first home, convert a Block of Bamboo into a Bee Nest using Dire's Primogel Goo. Without Silk Touch you need a campfire below to harvest combs and honey bottles safely.^[10]

Step 1: Hives, treats and machines

"Beehives to Beehomes" quest moves you to the Advanced Beehive, so you no longer harvest by hand. An Advanced Hive does not need a campfire, and an Expansion Box takes it up to 5 bees and unlocks upgrades. The same quest introduces the Feeding Slab, which holds several flowers or blocks in one space and keeps mixed-bee hives tidy.^[10][16]

Next is "Honey Treats" quest. It asks for a Honey Treat and a Bee Cage, and you will use treats for a lot of what follows.^[10]

Honey TreatMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Honeycomb
• Honey Bottle

Recipe id: productivebees:honey_treat

4× Bee CageMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any plank

Honey Bottle

any plank

Recipe id: productivebees:bee_cage

"Useful Machines" quest covers the Bottler and the Centrifuge or Powered Centrifuge. A Centrifuge turns combs into Wax, a useful item and usually some honey, and the Bottler turns that honey into bottles. The Powered Centrifuge is faster but needs power. The pack changes both the Bottler and the Powered Centrifuge recipes, so use these ones.^[10][15]

BottlerChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Smooth Stone Slab	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	any glass blocks	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot

Recipe id: productivebees:bottler

Powered CentrifugeChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Redstone	Basic Control Circuit	Redstone
Iron Ingot	Centrifuge	Iron Ingot
Redstone	Basic Control Circuit	Redstone

Recipe id: productivebees:powered_centrifuge/mekanism

Two more quests unlock after Useful Machines: "Auto-Catching Bees" quest for the Catcher and "BaBee Incubator" quest for the BaBee Incubator, which uses 20 Honey Treats to age up a captured baby bee.^[10]

Step 2: Nests and first bees

"Bee Types" quest splits bees into two groups. Solitary bees come from craftable nests and only breed new types. Productive bees live in your Advanced Hives. "Nest Spawning" quest then opens the nest quests. Basic nests need Honey Treats to lure a bee, and using more cuts the wait.^[10]

• Overworld: Oak Nest, Spruce Nest, Stone Nest, Dirt Nest and Reed Nest work with Honey Treats. Snow Nest needs a cold biome, Slimy Nest a swamp, and the gravel and sand nests (Gravel Nest, Sand Nest) specific biomes.^[10]
• Blue Banded Bees: Acacia Nest, Cherry Nest and Dark Oak Nest lure them when given Honey Treats.^[10]
• Nether: Glowstone Nest, Soul Sand Nest, Quartz Nest, Nether Gold Nest and Nether Brick Nest only work in the Nether. Each wants its own item: Glowstone, Ghast Tears, Nether Quartz, Gold Ingots or Magma Cream.^[10]
• End: End Stone Nest lures Ender Bees with Popped Chorus Fruit, and Obsidian Nest lures Draconic Bees with Dragon's Breath. Both only work in the End.^[10]

The pack changes the Crystalline Bee spawning recipe. It is a Quartz Nest with quartz, not the default.^[15]

Step 3: Breeding up the metal and gem bees

After the Nether nests, the quest book chains bees by breeding. Each quest below unlocks after the one before it, except Iron and Gold, which both come straight from the Nether nests.^[10]

1. "Redstone Bees" quest: breed a Glowing Bee with a Chocolate Mining Bee.^[10][28]
2. "Lapis Bees" quest: breed a Redstone Bee with a Blue Banded Bee.^[10][29]
3. "Diamond Bees" quest: breed an Ender Bee with a Lapis Bee.^[10][30]
4. "Emerald Bees" quest: breed a Diamond Bee with a Slimy Bee.^[10][31]
5. "Ancient Bees" quest: use a Netherite Block on a Diamond Bee to convert it.^[10][32]

"Iron Bees" quest breeds a Crystalline Bee with an Ashy Mining Bee. "Gold Bees" quest gives two routes: a Nether Gold Nest in the Nether, or breeding a Mason Bee with a Crystalline Bee.^[10][33][34]

"Easy Breeding!" quest unlocks the Breeding Chamber after the BaBee upgrade quest. It breeds two caged bees in one powered block. The pack changed its recipe, and that recipe involves the BaBee upgrade.^[10][15]

Breeding ChamberChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Rose Bush	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	Upgrade Child	Iron Ingot
Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot

Recipe id: productivebees:breeding_chamber

Step 4: Upgrades and the Heated Centrifuge

"Unbeelievable Upgrades" quest opens the upgrade line. Installing upgrades needs an Expansion Box on top of the Advanced Hive. The quests give these numbers:^[10]

• "Upgrade: Speed" quest: a 20% speed increase, and it can be stacked. It also works in machines such as Centrifuges and Breeding Chambers.^[10]
• "Upgrade: Productivity Alpha" quest: 120% more combs. The quest warns you will need a lot of Draconic Bees.^[10]
• "Upgrade: Productivity Beta" quest: 150% each, and it is needed for the next tier.^[10]
• "Upgrade: Productivity Gamma" quest: 200%, and it also acts as a Simulator Upgrade.^[10]
• "Upgrade: Block" quest: makes the hive produce Comb Blocks instead of Combs.^[10]
• "Upgrade: Productivity Omega" quest: 260% each, acting as both a Simulator and a Block Upgrade. It needs Gamma and Block first.^[10]

"Heated Centrifuge" quest unlocks after the Speed Upgrade. The Heated Centrifuge is fast, processes Comb Blocks and voids any wax it makes. The pack changed its recipe, and its dragon egg ingredient has its own recipe too.^[10][15]

Heated CentrifugeChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot
Upgrade Time	Inactive Dragon Egg	Upgrade Time
Copper Block	Powered Centrifuge	Copper Block

Recipe id: productivebees:heated_centrifuge

Inactive Dragon EggMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Draconic Chunk	Draconic Chunk	Draconic Chunk
Draconic Chunk	any egg	Draconic Chunk
Draconic Chunk	Draconic Chunk	Draconic Chunk

Recipe id: productivebees:inactive_dragon_egg

Pack-specific bee recipes

The pack adds a conversion that turns a brown mushroom block into a Brown Shroom Bee. It also changes the Salty Bee conversion, which uses Salt Dust.^[15]

Productive Bees plugs into a lot of other mods in this pack. Its combs come out of the centrifuge as items from other mods, some bees are made by feeding them other mods' items, and a few of the mod's machines are crafted with outside parts. The pack also changed several of these recipes, and I'll flag those as we go.^[15]

Centrifuge results from other mods

The Centrifuge processes resource combs into resources and honey, and every comb below gives Wax alongside its main result. The Useful Machines quest in the book's Generating Resources chapter (group Resources & Logistics) explains this and covers the Bottler and Powered Centrifuge too. Here is what combs turn into from other mods:^[7][10][15]

• Mystical Agriculture: Inferium Essence, Prudentium Essence, Tertium Essence, Imperium Essence, Supremium Essence and Awakened Supremium Essence, plus Prosperity Shard and Soulium Dust. Mystical Agradditions adds Insanium Essence.^[15]
• Powah: Blazing Crystal, Niotic Crystal, Nitro Crystal, Spirited Crystal, Energized Steel and Raw Uraninite.^[15]
• Storage and energy: Fluix Crystal with Fluix Dust, Quartz Enriched Iron, and Flux Dust.^[15]
• Magic mods: Source Gem, Arcane Essence, Tiny Chaos Fragment and Grains of Infinity.^[15]
• Create and Modern Industrialization: Rose Quartz and Manganese Tiny Dust. Two fluid recipes also exist: 100 Builder's Tea gives only Wax, and 100 Sulfuric Acid gives only Wax (the pack changed that one).^[15]
• Integrated Dynamics: 50 Menril Resin gives Crystallized Menril Chunk, and 50 Liquid Chorus gives Ender Pearl.^[15]

Resources from FTB Materials are where the pack made its own choices. It changed the centrifuge results for Salt Dust, Sulfur Dust, Fluorite Gem, Ruby Gem, Silicon, Refined Glowstone Nugget, Refined Obsidian Dust, Raw Antimony, Tiny Chromium Dust, Monazite Dust, Raw Aluminum, Iridium Nugget, Raw Lead, Raw Nickel and Raw Osmium. It added new ones for Bauxite Dust and Raw Tungsten.^[15]

Making bees with other mods

Bee conversion recipes turn a bee into a new type when you give it a specific block or item. Some of the in-pack inputs are Prosperity Block, Block of Black Quartz, Liquid Lithium Bucket, Infused Diamond and Soulium Dagger. The pack changed or added a few: Salt Dust (changed), Sulfuric Acid Bucket (changed), Block of Monazite (changed), Block of Bauxite (added) and Block of Titanium (added). You can check any of these in JEI.^[10][15]

Other bees are crafted through another mod's own system. Mystical Agriculture infusion makes the inferium, tertium, prudentium, imperium, supremium and insanium bees. Ars Nouveau's enchanting apparatus makes the arcane bee, Draconic Evolution's fusion crafting makes the draconium, awakened and chaos bees, and an Iron's Spellbooks recipe makes the arcane essence bee. The quest book mentions this kind of mod-specific bee crafting in its Getting Bees quest.^[10][15]

Spawn Egg Configurable BeeMod recipe

Enchanting Apparatus (ars_nouveau)

• 8× Source Gem
• Configurable Bee

Recipe id: productivebees:ars_nouveau/arcane_bee

Crafted at an Ars Nouveau enchanting apparatus.

Spawn Egg Configurable BeeMod recipe

Fusion Crafting (draconicevolution)

• 2× Draconium Block
• 2× Draconium Core
• Configurable Bee
• 2× any draconium dust
• 2× any honeycomb storage blocks

Recipe id: productivebees:draconicevolution/draconium_bee

Crafted with Draconic Evolution fusion crafting.

Machines and items built with other mods

The Powered Centrifuge uses a Mekanism part in the pack, and the pack changed this recipe.^[15]

Powered CentrifugeChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Redstone	Basic Control Circuit	Redstone
Iron Ingot	Centrifuge	Iron Ingot
Redstone	Basic Control Circuit	Redstone

Recipe id: productivebees:powered_centrifuge/mekanism

Changed by the pack.

The pack also changed the recipes for the Heated Centrifuge and the Breeding Chamber. The Mystian Apiary centrifuge upgrades build on the Heated Centrifuge, from the base Centrifuge Upgrade through Centrifuge Upgrade (Tier 1), Centrifuge Upgrade (Tier 2) and Centrifuge Upgrade (Tier 3).^[15]

Heated CentrifugeChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot	Iron Ingot
Upgrade Time	Inactive Dragon Egg	Upgrade Time
Copper Block	Powered Centrifuge	Copper Block

Recipe id: productivebees:heated_centrifuge

Changed by the pack.

Centrifuge UpgradeMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Upgrade Productivity 4	Heated Centrifuge	Upgrade Productivity 4
Heated Centrifuge	Dragon Egg	Heated Centrifuge
Upgrade Productivity 4	Heated Centrifuge	Upgrade Productivity 4

Recipe id: mystianapiary:upgrade_centrifuge

A few recipes were added by the pack itself and use Productive Bees items. Upgrade Base needs a Honey Treat, the Bee Cloak needs one too, and Modern Industrialization's mixer has a Limestone recipe that uses Honey.^[15]

Bee CloakAdded by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Wither Rose	Honey Treat	Wither Rose
Honey Block	Leather Chestplate	Honey Block
Wither Rose	Honey Treat	Wither Rose

Recipe id: ftb:shaped/fargostalismans/bee_cloak

LimestoneAdded by the pack

Mixer (modern_industrialization)

• Limestone
• 1000× Lava
• 1000× Honey

Recipe id: ftb:modern_industrialization/mixer/create/limestone

Productive Metalworks can melt honeycomb: a plain Honeycomb gives 100 Honey and 50 Molten Wax, and a Honeycomb Block gives 400 Honey and 200 Molten Wax.^[15]

The intro quest "Productive Bees" quest also points you to Dire's Primogel Goo for making the first Bee Nest, and to Nature Essence for turning watery bees into regular ones. Most of the Generating Resources chapter's 99 quests aren't covered here, so check the quest book for the rest.^[10]

Every Productive Bees quest sits in one chapter of the quest book: "Resource Generation" quest opens the "Generating Resources" chapter, which is in the Resources & Logistics group (chapter 8 of 31) and holds 99 quests. The bee quests share it with other farming mods, so you will see Mystical Agriculture, Replication and others mixed in. Here is the bee line in order.^[10]

The main line

1. "Productive Bees" quest starts it all. It asks for a honeycomb and a honey bottle, and explains that you need some regular bees first.^[10]
2. "Beehives to Beehomes" quest comes after it and asks for the Feeding Slab. It covers Advanced Beehives, which can be upgraded to hold up to 5 bees with an Expansion Box.^[10]
3. "Honey Treats" quest asks for a Honey Treat and a Bee Cage or Sturdy Bee Cage.^[10]
4. "Useful Machines" quest asks for the Bottler and a Centrifuge or Powered Centrifuge.^[10]
5. "BaBee Incubator" quest and "Auto-Catching Bees" quest both follow Useful Machines. They ask for the BaBee Incubator (which takes 20 Honey Treats per aging run) and the Catcher.^[10]

Bee knowledge and nests

Three checkmark quests follow Honey Treats: "Bee Types" quest, "Getting Bees" quest and later "Bee Stats" quest, which comes after Getting Bees. They only ask you to read. "Bee Genes" quest follows Bee Stats and asks for the Gene Indexer plus a Gene Sample Upgrade. "Keeping The Lights Out" quest also follows Getting Bees and covers bees that only move into hives kept in complete darkness.^[10]

"Nest Spawning" quest comes after Bee Types, and every nest quest follows it. Each asks you to craft a nest:^[10]

• "Oak Nest" quest: Oak Nest^[10]
• "Spruce Nest" quest: Spruce Nest^[10]
• "Reed Nest" quest: Reed Nest^[10]
• "Stone & Dirt Nests" quest: Stone Nest and Dirt Nest^[10]
• "Gravel & Sand Nests" quest: Gravel Nest and Sand Nest^[10]
• "Snow Nest" quest: Snow Nest^[10]
• "Slimy Nest" quest: Slimy Nest^[10]
• "Blue Banded Bee Nests" quest: Acacia Nest, Cherry Nest or Dark Oak Nest^[10]
• "Nether Nests" quest: the Nether nests, such as Glowstone Nest and Nether Gold Nest^[10]
• "End Nests" quest: End Stone Nest or Obsidian Nest^[10]

The breeding chain

Nether Nests unlocks "Redstone Bees" quest, "Gold Bees" quest and "Iron Bees" quest. Each asks for a Honeycomb. Redstone Bees leads to "Lapis Bees" quest, then "Diamond Bees" quest. Diamond Bees opens two last quests, "Ancient Bees" quest and "Emerald Bees" quest.^[10]

Upgrades and machines

"Unbeelievable Upgrades" quest follows Honey Treats and asks for the Upgrade Base. Its follow-ups are "Upgrade: Anti-Teleportation" quest (then "Upgrade: Simulator" quest), "Upgrade: BaBee" quest, "Upgrade: Speed" quest and "Upgrade: Productivity Alpha" quest.^[10]

• "Easy Breeding!" quest follows the BaBee Upgrade and asks for the Breeding Chamber.^[10]
• "Heated Centrifuge" quest follows the Speed Upgrade and asks for the Heated Centrifuge.^[10]
• The productivity path runs from "Upgrade: Productivity Alpha" quest (120% more combs) to "Upgrade: Productivity Beta" quest (150%), then "Upgrade: Productivity Gamma" quest (200%) and "Upgrade: Block" quest. It ends at "Upgrade: Productivity Omega" quest (260%), which needs both Gamma and Block.^[10]