If you ask me what is the cutest mob in Minecraft, my answer is bees. Debuting in the 1.15 Buzzy Bees update, bees are the only mob in the sandbox game that have their own “home.” In this article, I want to share with you everything I know about bees in Minecraft. Let’s delve into it!
Table of Contents
What are Bees in Minecraft?
A bee in Minecraft is a flying neutral mob living in beehives or bee nests. Like bees in nature, bees in Minecraft also pollinate flowers to make honey. When their home is full of honey, players can harvest honey with shears or glass bottles.
Bee Behaviors & Pollinating
One feature that makes me love bees is their courage. Once they are provoked or threatened, they will suicidally attack in swarms. Doing these things might provoke a bee:
- Attack a bee;
- Destroy beehives or bee nests;
- Extract honey or honeycomb from a bee nest without a Campfire beneath it.
Do Bees in Minecraft Sting?
If you make a bee angry by one of the actions mentioned above, it will immediately sting you. Interestingly, its eyes will get red when they are furious. However, after stinging you, the bee will die shortly (as in real life). To lessen the effect of a bee sting, it’s recommended to use Potions.
How to kill a Bee in Minecraft?
If a bee tries to sting you, I think that you should… RUNNNN! If a bee doesn’t sting its target within 25 seconds of being provoked, it will stop being hostile.
If you find yourself in a situation where you must kill a bee, keep in mind that the Bane Of Arthropods enchantment can help increase your damage.
Bee Pollination in Minecraft
A big part of what bees do is pollination. At night, bees stay in their hives, but during the day, they can travel up to 22 blocks away from home to find pollen.
If a bee finds a flower (not in a pot) or a berry bush, it will take some time to gather pollen. The bee will then bring the pollen back to its nest. Any crops it flies over on the way will be pollinated, which works like bone meal and speeds up their growth.
How to get Bees in Minecraft
Natural spawning
Bees and bee nests appear in biomes with flowers and trees. Here are the biomes where you can find them and how often bees spawn:
Probability of Oak or Birch Trees Having a Bee Nest
| Biomes | Java Edition | Bedrock Edition |
| Plains | 5% | 5% |
| Sunflower Plains | 2% | 3% |
| Flower Forest | 0.2% | 0.035% |
| Forest | ||
| Wooded Hills | ||
| Birch Forest | ||
| Tall Birch Forest | ||
| Birch Forest Hills | ||
| Tall Birch Hills |
Note: This applies only to oak or birch trees that are naturally generated.
Nests naturally spawn in trees and have three bees inside. For the best chance of finding them, search in regular plains and sunflower plains biomes. These biomes are quite common, so you shouldn't have difficulty locating a bee nest.
How To Spawn Bee Nests With Saplings
If you'd rather not search for a bee nest, you can create one yourself! You'll need saplings, flowers, and bonemeal to do this.
To create bee nests yourself, plant saplings near flowers. A sapling has a 5% chance of growing a bee nest if it is within two blocks of a flower. You can speed up the tree’s growth by using bonemeal.
This process might take some time. However, it’s useful if you’re in an area where bees don't naturally spawn. Bee nests that grow from saplings will contain one to three bees.
To prevent bees from becoming aggressive, place a campfire under their nest. The smoke will calm them down and make them harmless. However, bees might still accidentally fly into the fire and get hurt. To prevent this, put a carpet over the campfire. This way, the bees can safely enter and leave their nest.
Tip: For an easy smoke setup, place a trapdoor over a campfire. Open the trapdoor to let out smoke and soothe the bees, then close it to let them go back to their usual behavior.
To fully remove a bee nest, use a tool with Silk Touch enchantment. This will safely collect the nest without upsetting the bees, allowing you to relocate them without losing any.
How to breed Bees in Minecraft
Just like other animals in Minecraft, you can breed bees. To do this, give two bees a flower. This will put them in 'love mode,' and red hearts will appear above their heads. If you're holding a flower, any nearby bee will start following you, making it easy to give flowers to them.
Bees in love mode will pair up and create a baby bee. The baby bee will be small, but you can speed up its growth by giving it additional flowers.
You can use a lead on a bee as well. Although it may look silly, a lead on a bee allows you to move them easily. Leads can be used on angered bees too.
How to farm Bees in Minecraft
If you need a lot of honey or honeycomb, consider setting up an apiary! That means you'll need to create beehives for your bees, lure them away from their nests, and harvest the honey and honeycomb while minimizing damage to yourself.
>>> Read more: How To Keep Bees And Farm Honey In Minecraft 1.19
How to harvest Honey in Minecraft
To harvest honey, find a bee nest that’s dripping honey. Use an empty bottle on the nest to collect honey. Be cautious, as this will upset the bees if you haven't placed a campfire underneath.
You can either craft with honey bottles or drink the honey. Drinking honey restores three hunger points, but since it's not the easiest resource to obtain, it’s not the most efficient food source.
If you combine four bottles of honey, you'll get a honey block. These semi-transparent blocks can be placed and will slow down anyone who walks over them. Additionally, sliding down a honey-block wall will help reduce fall damage.
What is Honeycomb in Minecraft?
Another material you can get from bee nests is honeycomb. To collect honeycomb, use shears on a nest. This will yield up to 3 honeycombs, which can be crafted into various items.
Honeycomb uses consist of:
- Combining 4 honeycombs to get a honeycomb block
- Create beehives
- Craft candles
- Craft waxed copper
Bee Nests vs. Beehives in Minecraft
Beehives and bee nests are different. A bee nest spawns naturally in trees and cannot be crafted.
Beehives, in contrast, can only be crafted. They are essentially man-made versions of bee nests. To craft a beehive, you will need 6 planks and 3 honeycombs.
Beehives act as extra housing for bees you breed. Since a bee nest can only hold 3 bees, any additional bees will move into the hive. This is useful if you're setting up a bee farm for materials. Once bees have moved into the beehive, it works just like a bee nest. You can harvest honey and honeycomb from the beehive, and as long as the bees are alive, you can keep gathering materials.
That's all there is to know about bees as well as how to get bees in Minecraft. Now get out there and make your own honey farm!
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