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Minecraft Bees: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted: Mar 29, 2021 in Minecraft

mc head By Kevin Lott

Overview

Ever since 1.15, Minecraft has never been the same. The addition of Bees was quite groundbreaking on its own, but to have an entire update themed around them was preposterous. Yet, it happened. So, now that you’ve finally come back to Minecraft, you’re gonna wanna know about these bees and how they work. Today’s guide will be on all things surrounding bees. How they work, what you can do with them, and everything else. Let’s get started.

Finding Bees

beehives

Surprisingly, Bees manifest near Bee Nests! They will also return to said beehives with their children and friends, teleporting to the inside. Bee Nests generate with three Bees in a few biomes: Plains, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest, Forest, Wooded Hills, Birch Forest, Tall Birch Forest, Birch Forest Hills, Tall Birch Hills. All of which have between 1-5% chance to generate a Bee Nest on each Oak/Birch tree.

You can break Bee Nests with any tool or your hand, with the fastest method being axes. Any broken Bee Nest will spawn all the Bees that were inside in an angry state, and then they will attack you.

Oak or Birch trees grown from saplings that are within 2 blocks of any flower on the same y-level have a 5% chance to grow with a Bee Nest containing 1-3 Bees.

Bees

Bees are a flying neutral mob that live in Bee Nests and Beehives. If provoked, Bees attack in a swarm to “sting” the player and inflict poison.

Bees do not fly, but rather hover a few blocks above the ground similar to bats or parrots. Bees can even be attached to a Lead, even when angry. They usually travel up to 22 blocks away from their Nest/Beehive to pollinate a flower or attack a player.

bee

Bees take refuge in any Nest/hive that has space for them, living in colonies. When it rains or is night, the Bees will return to their home. Breaking a Nest or Beehive releases all the Bees inside, angering them to assault the perpetrator.

Pollinating

A Bee Nest must spawn within two blocks horizontally or vertically from any flowers for the bees inside to leave the nest. Bees fly around their nests searching for flowers and berry bushes, which they will then collect pollen from after making buzzing noises around said flower for about thirty seconds.

pollinating

Bees that have pollen pollinate wheat, potatoes, carrots, beetroots, melon stems, pumpkin stems, and berry bushes they fly over. When one of these gets pollinated, it advances to the next growth stage. A Bee carrying pollen changes its texture to include little spots on its bum, which can be a visual indicator for the player. After this process, the Bee flies back to the Nest/hive to make honey. The Nest/hive can store up to 5 charges of honey. The texture will change to let you know that the Nest/hive is full of honey, and honey will also leak from the bottom.

How to get Honey

Using a bottle on the Nest/hive when it is full will allow you to extract the honey. You can also place a cauldron underneath the Nest/hive to catch droplets of honey.

honey bottle

How to Make a Bee Nest in Minecraft

If you would like, you can craft an artificial version of the Bee Nest. The Beehive is crafted with 3 Honeycombs and 6 Wooden Planks of any kind.

recipe

To obtain Honeycombs, shear a Bee Nest or Beehive that has all 5 charges of Honey full. This will anger the Bees, but who cares? Although Beehives can be crafted, Bee Nests are naturally occurring, and are not craftable.

Breeding

Bees follow players holding flowers, and if the player stops moving the Bees will fly over and rest on the ground facing them. If Bees are given a flower, they enter love mode and pair up to create babies. This grants the player some experience. Breeding has a five minute cooldown, and babies will take twenty minutes to fully grow.

Conclusion

That’s everything! Bees are a fairly complex aspect about the game, as they should be when an entire update surrounds them. Although some may argue that the addition of Bees was unnecessary, I like them and feel that they add to the atmosphere. They’re also absolutely adorable! With that being said, I hope this guide helped you. Have a great day!

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