Nectar: Beekeeping

Plant a garden for your bees and watch them work it. Every jar of honey takes the colour and taste of the flowers they visited. Nectar is a small hexagonal island with a hive in the middle. Sow clover, lavender, sunflowers and more, a tile at a time; they sprout, bloom on their own clock and fade. Only blooming flowers make nectar, and the bees fly to them, trip by trip. When the hive is full, you harvest it by hand. Nothing dies, nothing withers, and nothing is lost while you are away. A faded bed waits to be cleared. The colony never collapses. HARVEST IT BY HAND Uncap each frame with the knife, spin the extractor, and hold to pour. A jar's colour is worked out from its flowers, so a little buckwheat darkens it more than you would think. Every jar gets a name and a label you can edit, and 35 kinds of honey wait to be found in the honey book. A LIVING GARDEN • A fifteen-minute day, with a golden evening and a short night when the bees stay home • Weather shared by every garden: sunny days, showers, and snow that settles in winter • Six butterflies to spot, and hedgehogs, frogs, robins, blue tits and moths that visit • Wasps to shoo from the hive, and swarms to catch before they leave • An evening primrose that opens at dusk for the moths KEEP YOUR BEES • Swipe through every frame of the hive, from the honey supers to the brood • Add supers, feed syrup, treat for mites, and spot the queen • Build up to three hives • Raise new queens from the hive you choose, and breed for vigour, thrift, hardiness and a calm temper • Turn the beeswax from every harvest into candles and honey balm A GARDEN OF YOUR OWN Ten levels unlock seven flowers, eleven decorations (a bench, lanterns, a bird bath, a skep, a sundial, a fountain and more) and new ground to lay: gravel, moss, flagstones, a meadow, a pond that moves. Paint the hive, name the garden and write on its signpost. Seventeen ribbons to earn. THE TOWN Neighbours send orders for the honey they want. Join the town to visit other players' gardens as they grow, buy and sell jars at the market, vote for the best garden and honey each week, enter the weekly honey show, and give to each season's fair. The town runs on iCloud: there is no sign-up, and others see only your garden, its name and sign, and the jars you sell. • No ads, no in-app purchases, no tracking • Every sound is made on the device, as you play • Photo mode, with filters and short clips, to share your garden • For iPhone and iPad