How to build a simple honey farm in Minecraft

Honey and honeycombs in Minecraft can be valuable resources, but players will need to work with bee mobs in their production process to get them.

In Minecraft, bees naturally leave their nests and collect pollen from flowers. Once they have enough pollen, they will return to their nests and produce both honey and honeycombs. The honey can be collected with bottles, and the honeycombs can be harvested with shears.

However, bees don't appreciate having their hard-earned honey taken and will typically attack players who don't pacify them with the appropriate measures. In order to farm honey effectively, players will need plenty of bees and either nests or man-made beehives.

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Minecraft: Creating a simple farm for honey and honeycombs

Honey farms can be made with either natural bee nests or crafted bee hives (Image via Mojang)

Creating a honey farm in Minecraft requires a few things. Specifically, it will require bees, flowers, and a home for the bees themselves. Players can craft man-made beehives using six wooden planks and three honeycombs, or they can use a Silk Touch-enchanted tool to pocket a natural bee nest.

It is important to remember for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players, however, that removing a nest with Silk Touch will still enrage any bees that aren't safely inside, so be sure that things are clear before proceeding.

If Minecraft players create artificial beehives, they'll need to transport the bees to their new home. This can be done in a few ways.

Players can use a lead to bring a bee to their new home, they can place flowers around the hives to entice nearby bees, or they can place a nearby Silk Touched bee nest, wait for the bees to depart, then destroy the nest, forcing the remaining bees to return to the hive.

Any of these methods should do the trick, although transferring from a natural bee nest is likely the least arduous.

Once players have their bees secured, they'll want to place their nests or hives slightly above ground with a source of flame directly beneath it or a campfire five or less blocks underneath it (be careful not to surround open flames with flammable blocks).

The smoke from the flames will relax the bees and allow players to harvest the honey and honeycombs from the hives without making them hostile. Players should also surround the hives with as many flowers as they can, which bees use to gather pollen and produce their materials.

The more flowers, bees, and nests/hives, the more honey and honeycombs that can be produced for Minecraft players.

On a final note, bees don't enjoy the rain, and return to their homes when things get rainy outside. If players would like, they can enclose their honey farm with blocks to keep out the bad weather, allowing bees to continue collecting pollen without being hampered by the rain.

Many Minecraft players create hybrid greenhouse structures that feature both beehives and crops, which allow them to collect from bee nests/hives and give bees the ability to spread pollen to nearby crops, speeding their growth rates in a means similar to bone meal.