Honey and honeycomb are two of the most useful items you can farm in Minecraft. Honeycomb is the game’s wax: it waxes copper, crafts candles and beehives. Honey bottles feed you, cure poison and make sugar and honey blocks. Both come from bees, which live in bee nests and beehives. This guide explains how to get honeycomb and honey in Minecraft, how to harvest them without getting stung, how to find and move bees, how to make a beehive, and how to build an automatic honey farm.
Quick answer
- Honeycomb: use shears on a full bee nest or beehive (honey level 5). You get 3 honeycomb.
- Honey: use a glass bottle on a full bee nest or beehive. You get 1 honey bottle.
- Wax or beeswax: in Minecraft, wax is honeycomb. There is no separate beeswax item.
- Stay safe: place a campfire under the nest before harvesting so the bees stay calm.
Step 1: Find bees and bee nests
Bees were added in the Buzzy Bees update in December 2019. Wild bees live in bee nests, which generate on trees in certain biomes:
- Meadows and cherry groves: the best places, with nests very common.
- Plains and sunflower plains: nests appear on oak and birch trees.
- Flower forests: frequent nests and lots of flowers for bees.
Bee nests look like yellow blocks with holes and a striped texture, attached to the side of a tree. You will usually see bees buzzing around them during the day. Saplings grown near flowers also have a small chance to grow with a bee nest attached, so you can create nests at home by planting oak or birch saplings next to flowers.
Step 2: Wait until the nest is full
Bees fly out to flowers, collect pollen, and return to their nest or hive, adding honey each time. A nest or hive has honey levels from 0 to 5. When it reaches level 5, it shows honey dripping from the openings, and it is ready to harvest. The more flowers nearby, the faster bees fill it. A single nest usually holds up to three bees.
Step 3: Calm the bees with a campfire
If you harvest a nest without protection, every bee inside becomes angry and stings you, causing poison. To avoid this, place a campfire directly underneath the nest, within five blocks below it. The smoke calms the bees so you can harvest safely. Put a carpet or a block between the campfire and the nest if you want to avoid the smoke particles blocking your view, or use a soul campfire. Never place the campfire touching the nest when it is lit near flammable trees without care; a fire can spread to leaves. See how to make a campfire.
Step 4: Harvest honeycomb or honey
How to get honeycomb in Minecraft
Hold shears and use them on a full nest or hive. Three honeycomb pop out, and the honey level resets to zero. If you do not have shears, craft them with two iron ingots placed diagonally; see how to make shears.
How to get honey in Minecraft
Hold an empty glass bottle and use it on a full nest or hive. You receive one honey bottle, and the honey level resets. Glass bottles are crafted from three glass blocks in a V shape. If you need glass, read how to make glass.
You can choose either honeycomb or honey from each full nest, not both, so decide which you need more before harvesting.
What honeycomb is used for
- Waxing copper: use honeycomb on any copper block, door, trapdoor, bulb, chest or golem statue to stop it oxidizing. This is why players search for wax and beeswax. See what copper is used for.
- Candles: one string above one honeycomb makes a candle, which can be dyed in 16 colors.
- Beehives: six wooden planks and three honeycomb make a beehive.
- Honeycomb blocks: four honeycomb make a decorative block.
- Signs: waxing a sign with honeycomb stops anyone from editing it.
What honey is used for
- Food: drinking a honey bottle restores 6 hunger points and removes poison.
- Sugar: one honey bottle crafts into three sugar, useful for cakes and potions.
- Honey blocks: four honey bottles make a sticky honey block that slows movement, reduces fall damage, and moves entities attached to pistons, which makes it popular in redstone machines.
How to make a beehive
A beehive is the craftable version of a bee nest. Place three wooden planks in the top row, three honeycomb in the middle row and three wooden planks in the bottom row of a crafting table. Beehives hold up to three bees, fill with honey in the same way and can be harvested with shears or bottles. They are ideal for farms because you can place them anywhere.
How to get bees and move them home
- Lead them with flowers: hold any flower and bees will follow you. Walk them slowly to your base and place a beehive nearby.
- Move the whole nest with Silk Touch: break a nest or hive with a Silk Touch tool, and it keeps its bees inside. Do this at night when all bees are home, and place the nest at your base.
- Breed bees: feed two bees a flower each, and they produce a baby bee. Breeding is the easiest way to fill several hives.
Bees only enter a hive within about 22 blocks of where they were placed, so keep flowers and hives close together.
How to build an automatic honey farm
You can automate harvesting with a dispenser. Place a dispenser facing a beehive and fill it with shears or glass bottles. Use an observer watching the beehive: when the hive becomes full, the observer sends a redstone signal to the dispenser, which uses the shears or bottle on the hive. Honeycomb drops as an item that a hopper underneath can collect, while honey bottles go into the dispenser and need emptying. Add a campfire under the hive so automated harvests never anger the bees. Plant lots of flowers nearby to keep production high.
Tips and common mistakes
- Do not attack bees: an angry swarm can deal heavy poison damage, and bees die after stinging, which shrinks your colony.
- Bees stay home at night and in rain, so production stops then.
- Breaking a nest without Silk Touch destroys it and angers the bees inside.
- Keep at least one hive full of bees before experimenting, so you never lose your whole colony.
FAQ
How do you get honeycomb without angering bees?
Place a lit campfire within five blocks under the nest, then use shears when it is full.
How do you collect honey in Minecraft?
Use a glass bottle on a full bee nest or beehive.
How do you get wax in Minecraft?
Wax is honeycomb. Harvest it with shears and use it on copper blocks.
Can you get honey from a nest that is not full?
No. The nest or hive must be at honey level 5, shown by dripping honey.
How do you get bees in Minecraft?
Find bee nests in meadows, plains, flower forests or cherry groves, then lead bees with flowers or move a nest with Silk Touch.
Bees are also great for crops: they pollinate nearby wheat, carrots, potatoes and other plants, speeding up their growth.