Bees are a true asset to any Minecraft world. They buzz around, collect pollen from nearby flowers, and bring it back to their nest. In doing so, they produce plenty of honey and other products, just like real bees. And these can, of course, be farmed automatically! With this, you can then create many other blocks to decorate your world. The orange blocks look great and fit perfectly into some of the color palettes. We’ll show you how bees behave, what you need to keep in mind, and how to build an automatic farm in this article.
Bees and Honey in Minecraft: Basics and Behavior
Bees are still a relatively new mob in Minecraft but have already gained great popularity among players. They are not only practical and generate completely new resources, but they also seamlessly fit into the nature of Minecraft.
Bee Behavior in Minecraft: How They Use Pollen for Honey
You might have seen a bee buzzing around at some point. They are mainly found in temperate forests or wide meadows with scattered trees. Flowers should also be nearby so that pollen can be collected. You can find the nests on oaks or birches that can house up to three bees. By the way, bees don’t fly around at night and stay in their nests, which is handy if you want to move the nests.
If you want to keep bees yourself, you need to collect them somehow. Wait until night falls (or it rains) and use Silk Touch to break the nest. The bees will remain stored in the block, allowing you to transport them. However, you don’t need the natural nests; you can craft ones from wood and honeycombs that work just the same. These are known as beehives. Bees can also be bred like any other animals. Simply use flowers for breeding. The new bees will then 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’s a 5% chance for a tree with a bee nest.
Harvesting Honey and Honeycombs: The Products of Your Bee Farm
Bee nests and beehives function identically. Both serve as the home for bees where they produce two different resources. The block needs to 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, and can also be consumed.
- Honeycomb: Can be harvested with shears. Used for honeycomb blocks, candles, beehives, and coating copper blocks.
It’s important to place a campfire under the bee nest. The smoke prevents the bees from becoming aggressive if you want to manually harvest their products. However, you can avoid this with a dispenser, which we will use for the automatic farm.
How to Build an Automatic Honey Farm: Step-by-Step Guide
Even if it seems 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 you can adapt the farm to your own needs. Additionally, the design can be infinitely extended, making the farm very practical.
Tip: You can also build the farm in the Nether or End, as it never gets night or rains there. This means the bees work continuously.
Materials for Your Honey Farm
For one unit:
- Hopper
- Chest
- Flower + Grass Block
- Bee Nest or Beehive
- Redstone Comparator
- 5 Redstone Dust
- Building Blocks
- 1 Slab
Step-by-Step Instructions
We’ll show you how to build one unit first. Use a typical setup for a hopper and a chest. The nest or hive, where the bees produce their honey products, goes above the hopper. Lastly, attach a dispenser facing the nest. It’s best to use a building block above and attach it directly from below. As mentioned in the explanation, this allows you to harvest the products without doing it manually.
Fill the dispenser with glass bottles or shears. However, keep in mind that all nine slots must be filled; otherwise, honey bottles and honeycombs won’t be collected 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 for harvest. Therefore, we need a signal that fires exactly five blocks from the nest to the dispenser.
For this, we build a sort of U-shape lying on its side. The comparator points with its two prongs into the block behind the bee nest. Then we run the redstone upwards to the dispenser, using a slab so the signal isn’t interrupted. When the nest is full, the signal reaches the dispenser and fires either the glass bottle or the shears.
Now you can chain the design as many times as needed to get as much honey as possible. The redstone won’t overlap, don’t worry!
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’ve added a small door at the beginning of the farm for easier access. It’s best to round off the farm on the right and left next to the dispenser with building blocks so 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 occasionally to see if there are enough shears and glass bottles available.
Conclusion: Why an Automatic Honey Farm in Minecraft is Essential
Bees are not only cute in Minecraft but also incredibly hardworking. They buzz around and collect pollen, which is then processed into honey. An automatic farm is not difficult to build and fits perfectly into any world! Continuously produce sweet resources on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and build a thriving honey farm! Our design is easy to implement and can be expanded infinitely to harvest even more honey.
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