How To Get A Bee Nest In Minecraft

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Naturally Spawning Bees

How To Spawn Your Own Bee Nests With Saplings

Do Bees Sting?

Can You Breed Bees?

How To Farm Bees

Harvesting Honey

Honeycomb

Bee Nests vs. Beehives - What's The Difference?

Introduced in the 1.15 Buzzy Bees update, bees are one of the cutest mobs in Minecraft. They are the only mob in the game that has a 'home,' which can be a bit confusing. Thankfully, this guide is here to teach you everything there is to know about bees!

Updated October 3, 2021 by Gabrielle Huston: Minecraft has dozens of mechanics that take time to understand fully! If you're just working your way into bee-keeping, this guide has you covered. It's been updated with even more information to help you on your journey!

Naturally Spawning Bees

Bees and bee nests will spawn in biomes with flowers and trees. Here are the suitable biomes, as well as spawn rates for bees:

NOTE: This is specific to naturally generated oak or birch trees.

Biome	Chance For Oak or Birch Tree To Have Bee Nest (Java Edition)	Chance For Oak or Birch Tree To Have Bee Nest (Bedrock Edition)
Plains	5%	5%
Sunflower Plains	2%	3%
Flower Forest	0.2%	0.035%
Forest	0.2%	0.035%
Wooded Hills	0.2%	0.035%
Birch Forest	0.2%	0.035%
Tall Birch Forest	0.2%	0.035%
Birch Forest Hills	0.2%	0.035%
Tall Birch Hills	0.2%	0.035%

Naturally, spawning nests will appear in trees, with 3 bees inside. To make your bee search as efficient as possible, search for normal plains and sunflower plains. These biomes are pretty common so you shouldn't have a hard time finding a bee nest.

How To Spawn Your Own Bee Nests With Saplings

If you don't want to search for a bee nest, try spawning one yourself! To do this, you will need saplings, flowers, and bonemeal.

You spawn bee nests yourself by planting saplings near flowers. A sapling will have a 5% chance to spawn a bee nest if it is grown within 2 blocks of a flower. You can speed up the tree's growth by using bonemeal.

This may take a while. However, it is helpful if you are not near an environment where bees will spawn. Bee nests spawned from saplings will hold 1 to 3 bees.

Do Bees Sting?

via AmadFish_123/Reddit

Bees can definitely get angry and sting you. A bee's eyes will become red and they will attempt to sting you if you disturb their nests. But once a bee stings you, it will die.

To avoid a bee's wrath, try placing a campfire underneath their nest. The smoke will relax the bees, rendering them harmless. Although the smoke will essentially neutralize them, they can still accidentally go into the fire and die. To eliminate this from happening, place a carpet over the fire. This will allow the bees to safely enter and exit their nest.

If you want to completely uproot a bee nest, use any tool enchanted with silk touch. This will remove the nest without angering the bees. Additionally, you can relocate the bees to another location without losing any in the process.

Can You Breed Bees?

Like every other animal in Minecraft, you can breed bees. To breed, just give two bees a flower. Doing this will send the bees into 'love mode,' and red hearts will appear over their heads. If you are holding a flower, any nearby bee will begin to follow you, making it easy for you to give flowers to them.

Bees in love mode will find a partner and make a baby bee. The baby bee will be tiny, but you can speed up their growth by giving them more flowers.

You can use a lead on a bee as well. Although it may look silly, a lead on a bee allows you to easily move them. Leads can be used on angered bees too.

How To Farm Bees

If you need a lot of honey and/or honeycomb, consider making yourself a farm of bees!

That'll involve making Beehives for the bees to live in, coaxing them away from their home, and harvesting the fruits of your labour without taking tons of damage! Check out our guide for a step-by-step breakdown of the process.

Harvesting Honey

To harvest honey, approach any bee nest that is dripping honey. Using an empty bottle on the nest will give you some honey! Be careful though, this will anger the bees if you haven't placed a campfire yet. Check out our guide on harvesting honey for more information.

You can craft with the honey bottle, or just drink the honey. Drinking honey will restore 3 hunger points, but since it isn't the easiest resource to get, it's not an efficient food source.

Combining 4 bottles of honey will create one honey block. Honey blocks are semi-transparent blocks that can be placed. The block will slow anyone who passes over. Additionally, you can slide down a wall of honey without taking as much fall damage.

Honeycomb

Another material you can obtain from bee nests is honeycomb. To get honeycomb, use a pair of sheers on a nest. Doing so will get you up to 3 honeycombs, which can be crafted into a few different objects.

Honeycomb Uses Include...

Combining 4 honeycombs to get a honeycomb block
Create beehives
Craft candles
Craft waxed copper

Bee Nests vs. Beehives - What's The Difference?

There is a difference between beehives and bee nests. A bee nest is a block that spawns in trees. The nest is spawned, and cannot be crafted.

Beehives, on the other hand, can only be crafted. They are essentially crafted versions of bee nests. To craft this, you will need

6 planks
3 honeycombs

Beehives are like an 'overflow' housing for bees that you breed. A bee nest can only hold 3 bees, so if you breed more, then they will move into the hive. This is important if you are planning on making a bee farm for materials. After bees have moved into the hive, it functions just like a bee nest. After the bees get to work, you can harvest honey and honeycomb. As long as the bees are alive, you can continue harvesting materials.

That's all there is to know about bees! Now get out there and make your own honey farm.

Next: Minecraft Complete Guide And Walkthrough

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