Minecraft bees, while one of the cuter mobs in the survival game, have a potentially deadly sting if you don't behave nicely around them

How To Find Minecraft Bees And Get Honey

Minecraft bees, while one of the cuter mobs in the survival game, have a potentially deadly sting if you don't behave nicely around them

How to get a beehive

Usually, a bee nest will spawn with three bees inside it. When a birch or oak tree grows naturally, it will also have a chance to have a bee nest on it, depending on the biome you're in. Those chances are:

• Meadow - 100%
• Plains - 5%
• Mangrove Swamp - 5%
• Flower Forest - 2%
• Forest - 0.2%

They can also spawn in cherry groves, although the percentage isn't currently known. Oak, birch, and mangrove trees grown from saplings within two blocks of a flower have a 5% chance to grow with a bee nest. These bee nests may be home to between one and three bees.

You can craft a beehive using honeycomb and wooden planks, or you can harvest one with any tool. Using a tool enchanted with Silk Touch will bring the bees with it, while using a normal tool will cause the bees that live there to be freed, and they'll be angry.

Bee pollination

Bees leave the nest one at a time during the day and fly around its vicinity looking for flowers, petals, and blossoms, but they will ignore flowers in flowerpots. You may notice the bee circling the flower for a short time while buzzing happily. This is its pollen-collecting process. After it collects pollen, you will see spots on its body. As it flies over any plants on its route back to the nest, they will become fertilized as the bee drops pollen particles.

Crops that a bee can pollinate include wheat, potato, carrot, beetroot, melon, sweet berry, pumpkin, and torchflowers. This has a similar effect to bone meal, and will grow the crop to its next stage of growth instantly. Every time a bee collects pollen, it can fertilize ten crops.

How to harvest honey and honeycomb

The first time I tried to harvest honey from a beehive I was stung, the bee died, I felt awful, and it was pretty traumatic. If you attack a bee, whether accidentally or not, all of the bees in that area will become angered and sting you. However, what I didn't realize at the time is that unless you place a campfire under the beehive, harvesting honey or honeycomb from it will also anger the bees inside and nearby.

When the bee returns to its home nest, it will make honey using the pollen, which takes around two minutes. Afterwards, the bee's nest will visually change, and you may see honey oozing from it if enough honey has been created. The oozing effect must be observed if you want to harvest the honey.

If you break a bee's nest, it will release the bees that live inside it. However, if you harvest a bee's nest using a tool enchanted with Silk Touch, the bees will remain inside and continue to go about their pollinating duties as soon as the nest is placed somewhere new. You can easily tell if a bee is angered, as its eyes will turn red and it will sting you. Shortly after, it will die.

To harvest honey safely, you will need a campfire, a glass bottle, and some patience. You can craft a campfire with wooden logs, sticks, and coal, while you only need glass to make a glass bottle. If you're looking for honeycomb too, you'll need some shears. Place the campfire directly below the beehive, as the smoke makes sure the bees are calm. Then, right click the beehive with the glass bottle to collect honey, or the shears to collect honeycomb.

How to breed bees

If you've collected enough honeycomb, you can craft more beehives using three honeycomb and six wooden planks. There's one small issue though--these beehives will be empty. To populate them, you're going to need to breed your existing bees. This is essential if you're considering setting up a honey or honeycomb farm system at your base.

Thankfully, breeding bees is easy. Find two bees and feed them both flowers, which will cause them to enter love mode. Shortly after, a baby bee will be born. There is a five-minute cooldown before the parent bees can breed again. The baby bees will seek out nearby nests with room for them to live in, and when they're mature they'll begin pollinating.

Bees and their nests can also be taken to the Nether and the End. In the overworld, bees will return to their nest if it rains or if it is night time. Since there is no day and night cycle in the Nether or the End, they will continuously work.

So, bees are certainly one of the smallest and cutest mobs in the game, but they're also one of the most productive with some interesting mechanics and produce valuable items. We've got plenty more information on Mojang's survival game in our Minecraft guides hub, as well as all you need to know on how to show your Minecraft coordinates if you're feeling a little lost on your search for bees.

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This story originally appeared on: GameSpot - Author:UK GAG