How to farm honey in Minecraft (2023)

Honey is a liquid in Minecraft that can be drunk and used in several ways. If careful enough, you can farm them from bee nests and even create a fully automatic farm to obtain them. When players roam around the Overworld realm, they find bees flying around their bee nests in various biomes.

Honey might not seem extremely useful initially, but it can be used in several ways. For instance, it can be drunk to remove any poison effect and even replenish hunger and health. Honey blocks crafted with honeycomb can also be used to create redstone contraptions. Here's how you can farm honey in Minecraft.

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Methods to farm honey in Minecraft in 2023

1) Manual farming

Manually extract honey or honeycomb from bee nests in Minecraft using glass bottles or shears (Image via Mojang)

One of the simplest methods is manually finding a bee nest and extracting honey using a glass bottle. First, you need to find bee nests, which usually generate on tree trunks in several green biomes like plains, forests, etc. One easy way to spot a bee nest is to look for bees themselves flying around the area.

Once a bee nest is found, do not be hasty and use a glass bottle on it, as it will anger the bees inside. If angry, they will chase you for several seconds before calming down.

Place campfire underneath bee nest before extracting honey or honeycomb in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

The trick to safely extracting honey or honeycomb from bee nests without angering bees is to place a campfire beneath the nest. After placing a campfire, you can use a glass bottle or shears on the next without hesitation and extract either honey or honeycomb.

Since bees have a random flying pattern, they can accidentally fly into the campfire and burn. Hence, you must place a carpet right above the campfire to prevent bees from going near it. You can also place several flowers around the bee nest to make it easier for them to obtain nectar.

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2) Automatic farming

Since Minecraft is a decade-old game, players have found methods to create a farm for practically any item. This also applies to honey and honeycomb. With a few redstone components, dispensers, hoppers, powered rails, etc., players can easily create a honey farm that automatically stores honey and honeycomb.

Players must create a collection area connected to a constantly moving hopper on a minecart to collect dropped honey bottles and honeycombs from the above block.

The upper layer of blocks will consist of bees trapped in an area one block long, where they will have access to bee nests and flowers planted on dirt blocks. Right above the bee nests, dispensers will face the nests containing glass bottles or shears to extract honey or honeycomb.

The entire contraption will be connected with redstone dust and a redstone comparator. As soon as the bee nests are filled with honey, dispensers will activate and shoot out honey bottles and honeycomb, which can then be collected by the hopper on the minecart and eventually stored in a chest.