Eric Barone quietly reveals new Stardew Valley update that's a game changer for honey farming: "Life will never 'bee' the same"

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"Bee houses now work with flowers in garden pots"

Stardew Valley Expanded
(Image credit: ConcernedApe/FlashShifter)

Stardew Valley update 1.6.6 is officially here, and although creator Eric Barone says it's "mostly bug fixes and translation changes," there is a list of "balance and gameplay changes," and among them is one that's a pretty dang big deal for honey farming.

Right at the top of the official 1.6.6 patch notes is a change that reads: "Bee houses now work with flowers in garden pots." It doesn't sound like much at first glance, but well, there's a reason the Stardew Valley community is wigging out over on Reddit and using pun-laden expressions of excitement like, "BEE HOUSES WORK WITH FLOWERS IN GARDEN POTS. LIFE (or at least SDV endgame) WILL NEVER 'BEE' THE SAME!!"

For the uninitiated, honey farmers can increase the value of their product simply by placing beehives near flowers and producing Flower Honey, but until this update, those flowers had to be planted in the ground for it to work. This meant that, in order for you to produce Flower Honey, you had to place beehives within five tiles of a fully grown flower, which meant taking up valuable tillable land with beehives. Now, you can simply plant a flower in a pot, inside or outside, and bring it anywhere you want to make some Flower Honey, put a beehive near it, and you're good to go.

"Bee houses working with garden pot flowers changes sooooo much! This is amazing," said one excited fan.

"I am very excited about this, no more jank layouts on the island," said another.

One player offered: "This is super exciting for the new farm type. Bees are a lovely fit for animal focused playthroughs, but previously needed tillable land within a certain distance."

If you're one of many farming fanatics on console or mobile tapping your toes simply waiting for the initial Stardew Valley 1.6 update, well, all Barone had to say on that matter is "Console and mobile ports are still in progress, thank you again for your continued patience!" It's not much, but at least it's... progress.

Meanwhile, a former Stardew Valley dev is making their own life sim set in a city, and it boasts some exciting "Wind Waker-style wind whirlies."

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.