Bees are probably the most hardworking entity in the world of Minecraft. They take the shortest breaks, offer practically an endless supply of honey, and are also the cutest in-game creatures. And as you will read today, they can also be one of the best automatic resources in the game. That said, in this guide, we will explain everything you need to know about making a bee farm in Minecraft. With the best locations and the complete list of items, the process to make your bee farm should be a smooth ride. Now, let’s dive right in and look at the steps for how to make an automatic bee farm in Minecraft.
Make an Automatic Bee Farm in Minecraft (2022)
Just make sure to update your game to the Minecraft 1.18 update first. It will help you save plenty of time in resolving errors. The method we are covering works on both Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions. This comes from the Youtube creator ChimneySwift11. Also, we have divided the tutorial into separate sections to make it easier for players to follow. Use the table below to explore how to make a bee farm in Minecraft to get honey and honeycomb.
What are Bee Farms in Minecraft Used for?
Bee farms in Minecraft can have a variety of purposes. You can use the bee farms to:
- Create honey automatically
- Harvest honeycombs
- Spawn more bees
- In some cases, for harvesting crops
Irrespective of how you use your farm, the methodology to make a bee farm in Minecraft is the same. Moreover, the items required to make it are also easy to find.
Items Required to Make a Bee Farm
You need the following items to make a bee farm in Minecraft:
- A flower or Flowering Azalea block
- 5 Stone blocks (or any other building blocks)
- 2 Slabs
- A Dispenser
- A Chest
- 4 Glass blocks
- A Hopper
- A Redstone Comparator
- 1 Bee Nest
- 2 Bees
- Bottles for Honey or Shears for Honeycomb
How to Find Bees in Minecraft
As you might have guessed, the most critical aspect of our farm is bees. The bees most commonly spawn in the meadow biome, but you can discover them in different forests and plains biomes. The Beehives are usually found attached to birch or oak trees in these biomes. You can use our tutorial on how to get bees in Minecraft to find and capture them quickly. While you are at it, you can also try to get a bee nest with bees already in it.
Best Location to Build an Automatic Bee Farm
While finding the perfect location to make a bee farm, you need to keep two things in mind – productivity and safety. Unlike villagers in Minecraft, the bees only follow the day and night cycle if they are in the overworld. So if you make the bee farm either in the Nether or End dimension, the bees will work restlessly. Of course, they will still take rest now and then. But the day and night cycle won’t affect them, and you will have an endless supply of honey.
We suggest you stick with the Nether for easier access to the overworld using Nether Portals in Minecraft. As for safety, you can either build a structure to shield your farm from mobs or look for Basalt Deltas. It is the safest biome in the Nether dimension of Minecraft. The only mobs that spawn in Bestas Deltas are magma cubes, and they are super easy to kill.
Steps to Make a Bee Farm in Minecraft
Our aim with this Minecraft bee farm is to get honey, honeycomb, and potentially more bees. Fortunately, we can make everything on this farm completely automatic. So, you only have to do the hard work once. Now, let’s go over each segment one at a time and build our bee farm.
Storage and Supplies
To begin, place a chest on the ground and a hopper on top of it. Then, place the flowering azalea block connected to the hopper, floating above the ground. Alternatively, you can also use a flower and place it atop a dirt block.
Bee’s Glass Chamber
Next, build a glass chamber using four glass blocks surrounding the azalea or the flower. Don’t forget to cover the top. Not to forget, you might have to place a temporary block first to place the floating glass blocks. Then, place the bee nest facing the glass chamber on top of the hopper. It’s best to have the bee already in the nest otherwise, getting it in the chamber can turn out to be tricky.
Collect Honey & Honeycomb
Since we are making honey on this farm, we also need a way to collect it. For the same, you need to place a dispenser on top of the bee nest. Then, put glass bottles in the dispenser, so that honey automatically gets collected whenever it gets produced.
Alternatively, you can also place shears in the dispenser to automatically make and collect honeycombs. Make sure to fill all the columns of the dispenser with the item you are using. Also, keep in mind that the dispenser must be facing downwards when you place it. An easy way to ensure this is by standing beneath the farm and looking up while connecting it to the glass block.
Redstone Mechanism
As for the final step, we need to create a Redstone mechanic that automatically makes our machine collect honey or honeycomb whenever it’s ready. First, you need to create a structure with slabs and stone blocks. Then, you need to place a Redstone compactor and connect it to the main machine. The easy way to do it is by replicating the structure in this screenshot.
Focusing on the structure, you can use any in-game building blocks beyond stones too. There are two blocks connected to the dispenser and one slab at the end of these blocks. Then, there’s a block behind the bee nest. After that, you have two blocks with a single block gap next to the hopper. Finally, there’s a slab placed next to the nest upwards of the final block. You will have to put down a temporary block before placing this floating disconnected slab.
Once the placement is complete, place the Redstone compactor on the first block behind the hopper. Meanwhile, the rest of the stone surfaces facing upwards will need 5 restone dust to complete the structure. So, once your design looks like the above screenshot, all you need to do is wait.
How Does a Bee Farm Work in Minecraft
The bee nest slowly fills up as the bees tirelessly dance around the flowers. Once the bee nest reaches its highest level, it will trigger all five Redstone dust we have placed on our structure. Doing so will lead the dispenser to drop shears or the bottles. This process will lead to the collection of honey bottles or the honeycomb in the chests below.
Though, you have to be careful while using shears as they cause damage to the bee nest when used. Once enough time has passed, you can open the chest and collect the honey bottles or honeycomb. Pretty easy, right?
How to Expand an Automatic Bee Farm
The bee farm works on a straightforward mechanic, as you might have noticed. Because of that, you can expand it further with more bees. With each bee you put into the system, you only need to rebuild the same structure as above. You can even make them connected for easy accessibility.
Additionally, you can even breed bees inside the nest by feeding them flowers through an opening. Just leave a slab space and not an entire block for the opening.
Make a Bee Farm to Get Honey and Honeycomb in Minecraft
With that, you are now ready to create unlimited honey with your very own automatic bee farm in Minecraft. Please feel free to experiment and redesign the farm as per your design. The only thing you need to ensure is that there are enough Redstone triggers to match five levels of honey. Beyond that, everything else can be restructured at your convenience. If you want something more powerful, you can try to install forge in Minecraft. This program allows you to install some of the best Minecraft mods. Some of them can even help you create a variety of other automatic farms. With that said, which other farm are you interested in discovering? Tell us in the comments below!