Bees are a true asset to any Minecraft world. They buzz around, collect pollen from nearby flowers, and bring it back to their nest. Like real bees, they produce plenty of honey and other products, which can also be farmed automatically! You can then use these to create many other blocks for decorating your world. The orange blocks look great and fit perfectly into some of the colour palettes. Learn how bees behave, what you need to consider, and how to build an automatic farm in this article.
Bees and Honey in Minecraft: Basics and Behaviour
Bees are still a relatively new mob in Minecraft, but they have already gained great popularity among players. They are not only practical and generate completely new resources, but they also blend seamlessly into the Minecraft environment.
Bee Behaviour in Minecraft: How They Use Pollen for Honey
You may have seen a bee buzzing around at some point. They are primarily found in temperate forests or wide meadows with scattered trees. Flowers should also be nearby so pollen can be collected. You will find nests on oak or birch trees, which can house up to three bees. At night, bees do not fly around and stay in their nest, which is convenient if you want to move the nests.
If you want to keep bees yourself, you will need to collect them somehow. Wait until it is night (or raining) and dismantle the nest with a Silk Touch tool. The bees will remain stored in the block, allowing you to transport them. However, you don’t need natural nests as you can craft them from wood and honeycombs, which work the same way. These are called bee hives. Bees can also be bred like all other animals. Simply use flowers for this. The new bees will find a free spot in nests or hives.
Tip: If you want trees with nests, plant a flower directly next to a sapling and let it grow. There is a 5% chance of a tree with a bee nest forming.
Harvesting Honey and Honeycombs: The Products of Your Bee Farm
Bee nests and hives function identically. Both are essentially the home of the bees. They produce two different resources. The block must be filled with five pollen for this.
- Honey Bottle: Can be collected with a glass bottle. Can be processed into sugar or a honey block, but can also be consumed.
- Honeycombs: Can be harvested with shears. Used for honeycomb blocks, candles, bee hives, and coating copper blocks.
It is important to place a campfire under the bee nest. The smoke prevents the bees from becoming aggressive when you manually harvest their products. With a dispenser, you can avoid this, and we will use this mechanic for the automatic farm.
How to Build an Automatic Honey Farm: Step-by-Step Guide
Even though it may seem a bit complicated at first glance, an automatic farm with bees is very easy to build. The design works for both honey bottles and honeycombs. You only need glass bottles and shears and can adjust the farm to your needs. Moreover, the design can be infinitely extended, making the farm very practical.
Tip: You can build the farm in the Nether or End, as it neither turns night nor rains there. This means the bees will work continuously.
Materials for Your Honey Farm
For one unit:
- Hopper
- Chest
- Flower + Grass Block
- Bee Nest or Bee Hive
- Redstone Comparator
- 5 Redstone Dust
- Building Blocks
- 1 Slab
Step-by-Step Guide
We will show you how to build one unit first. Use a typical setup for a hopper and a chest. Above the hopper, place the nest or hive where the bees produce their honey products. Lastly, attach a dispenser facing the nest. It is best to use a building block above and attach it directly from below. As previously explained, this allows you to harvest the products without doing it yourself.
Fill the dispenser with glass bottles or shears. Note that all nine slots must be full; otherwise, honey bottles and honeycombs will not be picked up by the hopper.
The redstone mechanism is very simple! It uses the comparator to measure the signals from the nest. As explained, bees need to return pollen five times before the nest is ready to be harvested. Therefore, we need a signal that fires exactly these five blocks from the nest to the dispenser.
To do this, we build a kind of U-shape on its side. The comparator points its two prongs into the block behind the bee nest. Then we lay the redstone upwards to the dispenser, using a slab to prevent the signal from being interrupted. When the nest is full, the signal reaches the dispenser and fires either the glass bottle or the shears.
Now you can replicate the design as many times as you like to obtain as much honey as possible. The redstone does not overlap, no worries!
At the front, build a small chamber for the bees, preferably at night when they are in the nests. Use glass so you can observe them. Plant flowers of your choice in the row next to the hoppers and between the glass. We built a small door at the beginning of the farm for easier access. It is best to round off the farm on the right and left next to the dispenser with building blocks to ensure the hoppers capture everything correctly.
That’s it! The bees are now working diligently and producing honey in their nests. All products are collected by the hoppers and sorted into the chest. Check now and then to ensure there are enough shears and glass bottles.
Conclusion: Why an Automatic Honey Farm in Minecraft is Essential
Bees are not only really cute in Minecraft but also incredibly industrious. They buzz around, collecting pollen that is then processed into honey. An automatic farm is not difficult to build and fits perfectly into any world! Produce sweet resources continuously on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and build a thriving honey farm! Our design is very simple and can be expanded as needed to harvest even more honey.
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