New Farms · Honey · Java & Bedrock

How to Breed Bees

Feed two bees a flower to breed them, let them fill the hive with honeythen harvest honeycomb without a single sting.

FEED FLOWERS → THEY BREED & POLLINATE → HARVEST HONEY

flowers breed bees

a full hive gives honey & comb

Give two bees flowers and they breed; as bees pollinate, the hive fills with honey. Use shears on a full hive for honeycomb or a bottle for honey, with a campfire below to keep the bees calm.

What you need

Flowers to breed and lead bees

A hive or a bee nest

Shears to collect honeycomb

A campfire to harvest safely

Flowers breed them, a campfire keeps them calm

Give two bees a flower each and they breed a baby bee. As bees pollinate, the hive's honey level climbs to five and starts dripping. Then use shears for honeycomb or a bottle for honey, with a campfire under the hive so the smoke stops the bees from getting angry.

Quick answers

How do you breed bees in Minecraft?

Hold a flower and give one to each of two bees standing close together. They enter love mode, show hearts and produce a baby bee. After breeding they need about five minutes before they can breed again, and the baby grows up on its own.

What flowers do bees like?

Any small flower works, such as a dandelion, poppy or cornflower, along with flowering plants like flowering azalea. You can also use a flower to lead a wandering bee back toward your hive or nest.

How does a hive fill with honey?

Bees fly out, find flowers and pollinate them, then return to the hive. Each successful trip raises the hive's honey level by one, up to five. At level five the hive starts dripping honey and is ready to harvest.

How do you harvest honey without getting stung?

Wait until the honey level is full, then use shears for honeycomb or a glass bottle for a honey bottle. Place a campfire within five blocks under the hive first: the smoke calms the bees so they do not turn hostile when you harvest.

What is the difference between a beehive and a bee nest?

A bee nest spawns naturally on trees and already holds bees. A beehive is the crafted version, made from honeycomb and planks, and works the same once you move bees into it. Both fill with honey the same way.

Do bees and honey work the same on Bedrock?

Yes. Breeding with flowers, honey levels, harvesting with shears or bottles and calming bees with a campfire all work on both Java and Bedrock, with only small behaviour differences.

Database →

The bee & honey

Look up bee behaviour, honey bottles and what honeycomb is used for.

Guide →

Villager crop farm

Bees pollinate crops, so pair them with an automatic food farm.

More bees means more honey, and more hives

Any flower breeds them

Two bees fed flowers produce a third, and the baby grows up in a few minutes. Because flowers are also what bees pollinate, a breeding setup and a honey farm are the same garden, and the only real requirement is that the flowers are in reach of the hive.

The colony caps at three per hive

A hive holds three bees, so breeding past that just gives you bees with nowhere to sleep, and homeless bees wander off. Add hives before you add bees, and keep them within a short flight of the flowers or the bees will not find their way back.

Smoke before you harvest

A campfire under the hive keeps the bees calm while you take honey. Without it the whole colony turns hostile, and an angry bee that stings dies afterwards, so a careless harvest costs you the bees as well as the sting.