- You need a shear and a campfire to extract honeycomb from Bee Nests or Beehives where the bees reside.
- To get honeycomb, find a bee nest dripping with honey, put a campfire under it, and use the shear on the bee nest.
- The honeycomb can be used to wax copper blocks, signs, and hanging signs. It can also be used to make beehive, candle, and more.
Copper blocks are one of the most distinct yet underused building blocks in Minecraft. And that’s primarily due to copper changing color because of oxidation, much like the real world. But what if you could prevent that from happening? Yeah, you can coat copper blocks with a protective layer, which comes in the form of honeycomb in Minecraft. To do that, you first need to learn how to get honeycomb in Minecraft, and then you can not only use it to wax copper but also make a bunch of other amazing items. With that said, let’s dive in!
What is Honeycomb in Minecraft
A honeycomb is a useful item in Minecraft that is created by the bees in Minecraft. In itself, the item is basic and not resourceful. But when combined with other items, honeycomb can unlock a variety of crafting recipes and even change the state of some blocks. Though, more on that later. For now, let’s figure out how to get the honeycomb in Minecraft.
Items Required to Obtain Honeycomb
You need the following items to obtain a honeycomb in Minecraft:
- Shear
- Campfire
- Bees (at least 1)
- Bee Nests or Beehives (at least 1)
Much like in the real world, the bees are responsible for collecting honey in Minecraft. They store honey inside the bee nests or beehives, whichever is closer to them. Once the beehive or bee nest is completely filled, the player can come up and use a shear to get honey in the form of honeycombs. Meanwhile, we need to place a Minecraft campfire under the nest, as it ensures that the bees won’t attack the player collecting the honeycomb.
How to Make Shear
To make a shear in Minecraft, you need to place two iron ingots diagonally next to each other on the crafting table. They can be placed in any two rows, and the diagonal could be facing either upwards or downwards. When it’s ready, the shear is a useful tool to terraform and break a variety of natural items, including vines, honeycombs, cobwebs, and more.
How to Get a Bee Nest
Since beehives require honeycomb for crafting, we are focusing only on bee nests here. They are naturally generating blocks that act as the house for bees in Minecraft. Each bee nest can contain three bees at the same time, all of which become hostile if you attack the bee nest. The bees nest block spawns in the following Minecraft biomes:
- Meadow
- Plains
- Sunflower Plains
- Mangrove Swamp
- Flower Forest
- Forest
- Birch Forest
Among these, only the meadow biome has a 100% spawn rate of bees. So if you wish to go bee hunting, we suggest you look for the meadow biome in your world. Meanwhile, if you want to pick up the bee nest, you need to use the silk touch with any of your tools. However, you can get honeycomb without moving the bee nest from its spawn location as well.
How to Collect Honeycomb in Minecraft
Follow the steps below to learn how to get honeycomb in Minecraft:
1. First, find a bee nest and make sure it is completely filled with honey. You can visually see honey dripping out of its holes, as depicted below.
2. Then, place a campfire beneath the bee nest. It will create smoke that prevents bees from turning hostile and attacking you.
3. Finally, use the shear on the bee nest by right-clicking or using the secondary action key. The bee nest will remain unharmed, and it will drop honeycomb. Collect the honeycomb, and there you go!
Best Uses of Honeycomb in Minecraft
1. Waxing Items
One of the primary uses of Minecraft honeycomb is waxing copper block variants, so you can preserve their oxidation state. Have this item selected and right-click a placed copper block. You’ll see yellow particles appear and a squishy sound play, indicating you’ve waxed the block. It’ll stop it from slowly turning cyan in color. Players use it to create waxed variants of the following copper blocks:
- Block of Copper
- Exposed Copper
- Weathered Copper
- Oxidized Copper
- Cut Copper
- Exposed Cut Copper
- Weathered Cut Copper
- Oxidized Cut Copper
- Cut Copper Stairs
- Exposed Cut Copper Stairs
- Weathered Cut Copper Stairs
- Oxidized Cut Copper Stairs
- Cut Copper Slab
- Exposed Cut Copper Slab
- Weathered Cut Copper Slab
- Oxidized Cut Copper Slab
To wax any block from the copper family, you need to place it next to a honeycomb on the crafting table. There is no crafting arrangement or recipe. Moreover, you can even use the crafting recipe in your player inventory, as it is a two-ingredient recipe.
However, if you’d like a waxed copper block to start aging, you can remove the wax by right-clicking it with an axe. It will scrape off the wax, and you will even earn a Minecraft advancement.
Besides copper, you can also wax signs and hanging signs. Since Minecraft 1.20, players can edit signs freely by right-clicking them. This can sometimes get annoying and frustrating, so you can lock the sign and its text by applying honeycomb, just like the copper blocks.
2. Craft Beehive, Candle, and More
You can use honeycomb in Minecraft to craft a beehive, a candle, and a honeycomb block. Beehive in Minecraft can be crafted when placing 6 blocks of any plank variant filling the first and third row of the crafting table. Then, place three pieces of honeycomb in the middle row, and you will see the beehive block appear in the result slot on the right.
Candle is one of the light source blocks in the game. It can be crafted using one honeycomb and one piece of string. Make sure to place the string on top of the honeycomb in the crafting grid to craft a candle.
Honeycomb block is a bright and vibrant building block. Because of that, it’s not used often, but it can provide the build with that visual interest it’s lacking. Place four honeycomb in a 2 x 2 square configuration to make this block.
How to Make a Bee Farm in Minecraft
As you might expect, collecting one piece of honeycomb is not enough if you are planning to wax a bunch of copper blocks or create a few craftable items. That’s why it is best to make a bee farm in Minecraft. It is one of the easiest farms to build in the game, and you won’t have to worry about collecting honeycomb ever again once it’s active.
You are now ready to collect an unlimited number of honeycombs without getting attacked by the bees in Minecraft. But before you get overwhelmed, make sure to create an Ender chest, or better, a Shulker box in Minecraft to keep your harvest. Meanwhile, when it comes to item collection and XP farming, we suggest you make a bunch of the best Minecraft farms as well.
Not only that, find Allay in Minecraft to help you out with item collection. Having said that, how are you planning to use honeycomb in Minecraft? Tell us in the comments below!
with inputs from @radatravar
You can use either fire or campfire to prevent bees from turning hostile. We suggest sticking with a campfire, as it won’t run out.
If the bees’ original home isn’t near, your beehive can attract them. It has an even higher chance of success at night when the bees naturally look for shelter. Moreover, you can use any flower in Minecraft to attack the bees.
You can remove wax from copper blocks by using an axe on it. It will revert the block to its original state.
By waxing a copper block in Minecraft, you prevent its oxidation and ensure that the color of that copper block isn’t going to change after some time.
If you have honeycomb, you cannot make honey from it. Both bee items require you to use an item like shears or glass bottles on a full bee nest or beehive to collect them. There is no way of converting one into the other.
Sampad Banerjee
Sampad Banerjee
Ishan Adhikary
Upanishad Sharma
Ishan Adhikary
Sagnik Das Gupta
Radojka Travar
