Bees in Minecraft are famous for a variety of reasons. Many players seek them to create bee farms in the game. Meanwhile, others are just excited to see the cute mob in action. I am definitely in the latter bunch. But irrespective of why Minecraft bees interest you, there’s a lot you can learn about them. Minecraft offers plenty of mechanics around bees, from finding bees to getting them in their nests. And we are here to share it all with you. With that said, let’s jump into learning everything you need to know about Minecraft bees.
Bees work similarly on both Minecraft Bedrock and Java editions. Though, we will cover any changes that you should know. Also, make sure you are using the Minecraft 1.18 update to make the most out of our guide. We have divided the variety of information around bees into separate sections, so skip to the section that interests you the most using the table below.
What Do Bees Do in Minecraft?
General PropertiesUses of Bees & their ProductsWhere Do Bees Spawn in Minecraft
Manually Spawn BeesWhere Do Bees Live in Minecraft
How to Get Bees Inside a NestWhat Do Bees Eat in Minecraft and How to Breed Them
Baby BeesPollinationWhat Makes Bees Angry in Minecraft and How to Fight Them
Fighting BeesDropsMinecraft Java vs Bedrock Bees: What’s the Difference?Bonus: Bees That Never Made It to Minecraft
General PropertiesUses of Bees & their Products
Manually Spawn Bees
How to Get Bees Inside a Nest
Baby BeesPollination
Fighting BeesDrops
What Do Bees Do in Minecraft?
Bees in Minecraft are neutral mobs. They are mostly passive and don’t attack the players or other mobs until provoked. However, bees can be pretty lethal if provoked, considering how they attack in groups. Each of their attacks gives a poison effect to the players and other mobs. As for the variants, there are only adult bees and baby bees in the game.
Before we dive deep into the world of bees, let’s learn a few basic things about them:
Uses of Bees & their Products
Much like real life, bees in Minecraft have a variety of uses. Through them, you can get honey and honeycombs. Both of these items have a variety of purposes in the game. You can craft the honey bottles into honey blocks and sugar. Meanwhile, the honeycombs are purposeful to make honeycomb blocks, beehives, candles, waxed copper blocks, slabs, and stairs.
Where Do Bees Spawn in Minecraft
Bees can spawn in meadows, plains, sunflower plains, flower forests, forests, and birch forests biomes in Minecraft. And it is only meadows that have 100% chances of spawning bees in Minecraft, while other biomes have less than a 5% chance. We already have a guide in place to help you easily find bees in Minecraft.
Manually Spawn Bees
If you are in creative mode, you can use bee spawn eggs to get an unlimited number of bees quickly to your Minecraft world. However, you can only generate bees in survival mode by growing oak and birch trees saplings. However, don’t put too much hope on them because the chances of saplings growing with natural bee nests are less than 5%.
Naturally, bees only spawn and live in their bee nests. They usually live in groups or colonies. A single bee nest can have up to 3 bees simultaneously, and they usually come back to the nest for resting. They also stay in the nests at night and while it’s raining in-game. When the bees are back, they remain inside the bee nest for around two minutes before leaving.
Similarly, there’s also a craftable version of bee nests called beehives in Minecraft. Both of them work in the same manner and can shelter homeless bees. You need six wooden planks and three honeycombs to craft a beehive using a crafting table in Minecraft.
A common problem that players encounter while using beehives is adaptability. Bees remember their original home, so getting them into a new beehive can be tricky. The solution is to either break their original bee nest or fil it with other bees. A beehive (or a bee nest) can have a maximum of 3 bees. Not to forget, you can also spawn baby bees to live in the newly crafted beehive.
What Do Bees Eat in Minecraft and How to Breed Them
Bees rely upon flowering plants for both meals and breeding. They circle a flower for 30 seconds while buzzing to collect pollen. Then, bees use that pollen to make honey and fertilize a variety of crops in Minecraft. The plants that attract bees in Minecraft include:
You can use any of the plants listed above to make the bees follow you. Then, you can make them breed by feeding the same plants. Mating in bees is food-based, similar to most mobs in the game. However, for some reason, bees don’t show any interest in potted flowers. If you’re eager to learn how to breed villagers in Minecraft, follow the linked guide for step-by-step instructions.
Baby bees are a result of bees breeding after eating flowers in Minecraft. A bee can give birth to more babies after a cooldown of 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the baby bees normally take 20 minutes or an in-game day to grow into adults. You can help them grow faster just by giving them flowers to feed on.
As you read above, bees can fertilize or pollinate various in-game plants. They do it by flying over them, and the effects of their pollination are similar to how bone meal makes the plants grow faster. The plants that can be pollinated by bees are pumpkins, melons, beetroots, wheat, potatoes, carrots, berry bushes, and cave vines.
Bees are mostly a passive mob that does its job without affecting any other mob. However, they can be one of the scariest mobs in the game when angered. Their eyes turn red, and a single angry bee makes all the bees in that area angry. Then, they attack the mob or the player with poison until they are killed or if 25 seconds go by without any interaction with that entity.
Moreover, the bees can get angry for a variety of reasons. For example, you can make a bee angry by hitting it or destroying a bee’s beehive or the bee’s nest. Bees also get mad when players collect honeycomb or honey from their homes. A single bee can only attack once. After that, it loses its stinger and dies within a minute.
At this point, you know that fighting bees isn’t a good plan – neither for you nor the bees. But if you still wish to fight them, you better be quick. They cause damage worth two hearts at the normal level, and their sting injects poison that lasts for about 10 seconds and can make you lose around four hearts. Not to forget, more than one bee will be attacking you in almost all situations. On the defensive side, you can either use a shield or the best armor enchantments to survive when being attached by an angry bee in Minecraft.
Killing an adult bee doesn’t drop any items. You can only get up to three experience orbs. On the contrary, you can get up to 7 experience orbs by breeding bees. As for baby bees, they don’t drop any items or experience orbs when killed. What can you do with experience orbs? Well, if you have been following our guides, you would know that you require experience orbs for Minecraft enchantments. Also, for those unaware, using enchanted books in Minecraft requires experience orbs, so it is a good idea to breed bees in Minecraft.
Most of the stuff around bees is the same on both Java and Bedrock editions of Minecraft. But there still are a few differences in Minecraft bees across platforms that you should know of:
Bonus: Bees That Never Made It to Minecraft
Minecraft players have gotten used to seeing and enjoying the bees as they are. But the developers had entirely different plans for how the bees look. The above image depicts two such examples. From the looks of it, they certainly make me appreciate the current version of bees in the game a lot more.
