
In the Minecraft 1.15 update Buzzy Bees, the addition of bees were a sweet excitement for everyone. Along with Minecraft bees, the update also included honey-related items. If you are a honey or bee lover, collecting honey from bee nests is a must. However, collecting honey from the bees causes the bees to get angry and aggressive at the player. In this guide, we will teach you ways you can collect honey without upsetting the bees and what you can achieve or build by harvesting honey.
Bees

Before diving into the techniques you can use to collect honey safely, let us first understand the mechanisms of the bee mob.
Where Can You Find Bees?
Bees are usually peaceful creatures that you can find in biomes with trees and flowers. Here is a list of all the biomes you can find them in:
- Meadow
- Plains
- Sunflower plains
- Mangrove swamp
- Flower forests
- Forest
- Birch forest
- Cherry grove
How Do Bee Nests Spawn?
Bee nests spawn naturally on the trees of the biomes listed above when you generate your new Minecraft world. For example, bee nests will spawn on oak trees in the forest biome and on birch trees in the birch forest biome. You can also try spawning a bee nest naturally by going to one of the biomes and finding a place with lots of flowers nearby. If you place a sapling near the flowers and wait for them to grow, there is a chance for a bee nest to spawn naturally on the tree after it’s grown.

You can also make man-made beehives in Minecraft that are functionally identical to bee nests. Beehives can give more houses for the bees to live in. The only difference is that a beehive is crafted while a bee nest is naturally generated by the world. To craft beehives, you are going to need:
- 3x Honeycomb
- 6x Wooden planks
After you have gathered the necessary items, place these items onto a crafting table in this pattern:

To pick the beehive or bee nest up without breaking the structure and having the bees attack you, you can use a pickaxe that has the Silk Touch enchantment to break it. The bees will be stuck inside the bee nest until you place it down again.

How Do Bees Work?
A Bee’s Busy Schedule
The max amount of bees that can be inside a bee nest or a bee hive is 3. If there are no nests or no more space for a bee, they will wander and search for an empty nest. Bees work on a schedule only in the day and when there is clear weather. Bees are inactive if it is raining or nighttime and tend to stay inside their nest without going out.

Bees and Flowers
During the day, bees will begin leaving the bee nest one by one to search for flowers. Once a bee has found a flower it likes, it will start circling the flower which means that it is starting to collect nectar. When a bee is collecting nectar, it will also gather pollen on its body from the flower. You can tell when a bee has pollen by the change in the texture of their abdomen. After the bee has collected the nectar, it will fly back to its nest where it works to turn the nectar into honey from inside the nest. Once it has finished making honey, the nest’s honey level increases and the bee will set out again to find more flowers.

Bees and Pollinating Plants
When a pollinated bee hovers over growing crops, there is a chance that it will pollinate the crops. The pollen falls onto the crop, helping accelerate the growth of the crop and advancing it to the next stage of its growth. This is really helpful if you want to create a farm that has fast growing crops.
Check out wattle‘s “Bee Powered Crop Farm Tutorial” on YouTube to get jump started on your own build!
Breeding Bees
You can also breed bees to create a mini bee. Bees are attracted to flowers, so if you hold a flower in your hand, they will follow you. If you give two bees a flower, they will become in love with each other and create small baby bees.

Angry Bees
Bees can also become aggressive if they feel threatened. A bee will become angry if you either attack it, collect honey from its nest, or destroy its nest. When a bee is mad, its eyes will turn red, and it will start flying towards you. This will also affect every other bee around it, causing all nearby bees to become enraged at you. A bee’s attack will give you the poison effect for a few seconds. The good news is that a bee can only attack once, as it will lose its stinger after it has attacked. However, the bees die around one minute after successfully stinging the player.

Collecting Honey Related Items
Now that we know the mechanisms of a bee, how do we collect honey or honeycombs without angering the bees? There are two very easy techniques that will help you do this:
#1 Honey

Before you start preparing to harvest honey, you need to first make sure that the honey is harvestable. There are levels indicating how full the honey in the bee’s nest is and you can only collect honey when the honey level is at 5. You can tell when a hive or nest is ready to be harvested when you see honey oozing out of the holes on the nests or the lid of the hives.
Getting the Resources
If you are trying to collect honey, you are going to need one campfire and one empty bottle.
To make a campfire, you are going to need:
- 1x Coal or Charcoal
- 3x Sticks
- 3x Wooden logs
You can find coal by mining coal ores underground or charcoal by burning wood in a furnace. Any type of wood logs can be used to create a campfire. Once you have gathered the materials, open a crafting table and put the items into the 3×3 crafting grid in this pattern:

To make empty bottles, you are going to need:
- 3x Glass
You can find glass by smelting sand in a furnace. Once you have obtained three pieces of glass, place them in the crafting table in this pattern:

Using the Campfire
To make the bees calm and collect honey from the bee hive or nest without upsetting them, place the campfire underneath the beehive. The smoke from the campfire will calm. the bees inside the nest, allowing you to collect the honey with a bottle and avoid angering the bees.

Once you have placed down the campfire, hold out your glass bottle and right click on the honey-filled beehive to collect honey bottles.

#2 Honeycomb

The main way to collect honeycomb is to shear them. You can use the same technique with the campfire directly beneath the beehives as you did with collecting honey to stop the bees from attacking when you shear. However, there is another way to collect honeycombs without the bees attacking. To do this, you are going to need:
- 1x Dispenser
- 1x Shears
To craft a dispenser, you are going to need:
- 7x Cobblestone
- 1x Bow
- 1x Redstone dust
Cobblestone can be found by mining the stone on the ground and redstone can be found when you mine a redstone ore block underground. You can either find a bow by killing a skeleton or by crafting it yourself with 3 sticks and 3 strings. Once you have gathered these materials, place them on the crafting table in this pattern:

To craft shears, you just need:
- 2x Iron ingots
Iron ingots can be found by mining iron ores and smelting them in a furnace. Once you have smelted the needed iron, place the iron in a diagonal order on either a crafting table or the crafting grid in your inventory:

Once you have both items, place the dispenser facing the beehive and place the shears inside the dispenser. Activate the dispenser with a redstone signal and he shears should drop down three honeycombs for you if the hive has a honey level of 5.

What Can You Do With Honey Items?
#1 Honey Bottles
Honey bottles are the item that you get when you right-click an empty bottle to collect honey. You can drink the honey bottles to saturate yourself and return 3 hunger bars. Drinking honey can also remove poison effects, however, it cannot remove any other effect.
If you out a honey bottle in a crafting table, you will transform it into 3 pieces of sugar:

#2 Honey Blocks
If you have four honey bottles and you put them in a 2×2 grid on the crafting table, you can craft honey blocks:

You can revert the honey blocks back into a honey bottle by combining it with four empty bottles in a crafting table:

Stickiness
Honey blocks have a unique property as they are very sticky. If there is an entity on the side of the honey block, they will slowly slide down the block at a very slow speed. Walking on top of the honey block will also slow your speed. You can use this mechanism and create a safe ladder or a trap:

The stickiness also allows them to be used in redstone contraptions. If you connect a block with the honey and have the honey connected to a piston, the block will move with the honey since it is stuck to it. This is very different from the mechanics of slime blocks, as slime blocks usually push the block instead of moving with it.
If you want to learn more, check out benqomc‘s explanation on the difference between slime and honey blocks on YouTube.
Fall Damage
Honey blocks can also reduce the fall damage you take when falling from a high place. If you drop onto a honey block from a high place, you will take 80% of the damage you would usually take if there is no honey block.
#3 Honeycomb
Honeycombs are essential when it comes to crafting items. Here are a few items that honeycombs can craft and the link to their crafting recipe:
- Beehive
- Candle
- Honeycomb block
Honeycomb also has a waxing feature when you use it with blocks. If you place a honeycomb on a sign, no one will be able to edit the sign and change the words. If you put a copper block (any type) with a honeycomb in a crafting table, you can wax the block to prevent it from oxidizing.
Here is RajCraft‘s explanation on the waxing feature of honeycomb.
#4 Honeycomb Blocks
You can craft honeycomb blocks by putting 4 honeycomb in a 2×2 grid on the crafting table:

Unfortunately, honeycomb blocks have no actual use. However, they are really pretty and have a unique design. If you are into designing or decorating, there is a good chance that honeycomb blocks could be what you are searching for.

Honey is very easy to obtain, but the process of collecting it is very delicate. Now that you know the secret to collecting honey without disturbing the bees, go out there and gather some for yourself! If you still don’t fully understand how to collect honey, check out HTG George‘s tutorial “How to Get Honeycomb and Honey in Minecraft from Beehive Easy!” on YouTube.
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Alex is a gaming enthusiast with a passion in content creation and social media. In his free time,
he enjoys playing golf, building keyboards, and cooking.
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