Bee Nest

Bee nests are blocks found attached to certain trees. They house bees, which fill their homes with honey made from gathered flower nectar. Full bee nests can be harvested for honeycombs (using shears) or honey bottles (using glass bottles). Bees will attack players who harvest or break their homes without utilizing campfires or Silk Touch, respectively.

Bee nests can be broken by any tool or by the player's fist, though they break faster with an axe.

If a bee nest is broken with a tool not enchanted with Silk Touch, it drops nothing and any bees inside emerge angry at the player, attempting to sting them, which causes Poison on success. Nearby bees will also become angry and attack. If a Silk Touch tool is used, the bee nest drops itself and any bees inside remain inside, and any bees nearby do not become angry.

If broken in Creative mode with bees inside, the bee nest drops itself and bees inside remain inside.

Naturally generated bee nests generate with 2-3 bees in them, and always face south.

Bee nests generate in the following biomes with different chances:

Biome	Chance[note 1]
	Java Edition	Bedrock Edition
Meadow	100%
Plains Sunflower plains Cherry grove	5%
Mangrove swamp	1%
Flower forest	2%	3%
Forest Birch forest Old growth birch forest Wooded Hills‌[BE only] Birch Forest Hills‌[BE only] Tall Birch Hills‌[BE only]	0.2%	0.035%

Bee nests can also generate in abandoned camps.​^[upcoming]

Oak, birch, and cherry trees grown from saplings that are within 2 blocks (including diagonally) of a flower on the same Y-level have a 5% chance to grow with a bee nest containing 2–3 bees. This holds true in any biome in any dimension, and for any flower including wither roses and flowering azaleas.

Mangroves grown from mangrove propagules have a 1% chance of having a bee nest containing 2-3 bees. Unlike birch, cherry, and oak trees, no flowers are required for a bee nest to generate.^[1]

In Bedrock Edition, oak trees grown in plains have a chance to grow with a bee nest regardless of the quantity of flowers nearby. It is not known if this behavior is intended.

Bee nests and beehives can house up to 3 bees at a time. They can enter through any unobstructed side, top, or bottom, but can exit only from the front, and only if it is unobstructed by a solid block (including a non-full solid block in Bedrock Edition).

Bees fly into a nest or hive at night, during rain, and after collecting nectar from a flower. They first look for one at the same coordinates as the last one they entered, but if there is no nest or hive there, or it already contains 3 bees when they arrive, they search the nearby area for another one.

Igniting a nest or hive allows any bees inside to escape, possibly catching fire as they flee.

Once full, bee nests and beehives provide two harvestable products: honey bottles and honeycombs.

Each time a bee enters a nest or hive covered in nectar, it starts converting it to honey. After it is done, it waits for daylight with no rain (if necessary), then exits to go collect more nectar. If the bee hive or nest is in the Nether or in the End the bee exits as soon as it converts the nectar. When the bee exits, the hive increments its honey level by 1 and has a 1% chance to increment it by 2. Once it has the maximum honey level of 5, it changes its appearance to show honey oozing out and, if the block below it is not a full solid block, starts dripping honey particles. (The dripping honey is decorative; it cannot be collected in a cauldron.) These changes signal that the hive or nest is ready for harvesting.

To harvest a honey bottle, a player uses a glass bottle on the nest or hive; filling the bottle with honey. To harvest honeycombs, a player uses shears on the nest or hive, causing it to drop three honeycombs. After harvesting, the hive or nest is reset to empty (honey level 0, with the default appearance).

Alternatively, honey bottles or honeycombs can be harvested by powering a dispenser containing either a glass bottle or shears. The dispenser must be directly facing the hive or nest.

Manually harvesting from a beehive or bee nest causes any bees inside it to become aggravated toward the harvesting player, unless there is a fire directly beneath it or a lit campfire within five blocks below, and the smoke is not obstructed. Smoke can pass through no more than one solid block, and only if that block is directly above the campfire. Placing a carpet above the campfire leaves room for the bees to hover beneath the nest and still avoid taking fire damage. In Java Edition, the smoke coming through the carpet also calms the bees. In Bedrock Edition, a carpet is treated as an obstruction that removes the calming effect of the campfire's smoke. Without a block covering the fire, the bees can still avoid fire damage if the campfire is placed 4–5 blocks below the nest.

Beehives and bee nests have a redstone comparator output with a strength equal to the honey level in the block, with a maximum signal strength of 5 once the block is completely full and ready for harvesting.

Java Edition:

wood sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.wood.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.wood.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.wood.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.wood.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.wood.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

normal sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	place.stone	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.27 [sound 1]	0.5
	​Footsteps	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.4	1.0
	​Footsteps	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.3	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.12	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.22	1.0

Java Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Honey drips	Blocks	When a honey drip particle hits a block	block.beehive.drip	subtitles.block.beehive.drip​	0.09–0.3	varies [sound 1]	8
	​Bee enters hive	Blocks	When a bee enters a bee nest	block.beehive.enter	subtitles.block.beehive.enter​	1.0	0.7/0.8	14
	​Bee leaves hive	Blocks	When a bee exits a bee nest	block.beehive.exit	subtitles.block.beehive.exit​	1.0	0.9/1.0/1.1	14
	​Shears scrape	Blocks	When honeycombs are harvested from a bee nest	block.beehive.shear	subtitles.block.beehive.shear​	0.8	1.0/0.8/0.9	16
	​Bees work	Blocks	Randomly while a bee is inside	block.beehive.work	subtitles.block.beehive.work​	0.6	1.0	12
	​Bottle fills	Blocks	When a bottle is filled with honey	item.bottle.fill	subtitles.item.bottle.fill​	1.0	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Honey drips	Blocks	When a honey drip particle hits a block	block.beehive.drip	subtitles.block.beehive.drip​	0.3	0.7–0.9
	​Bee enters hive	Blocks	When a bee enters a bee nest	block.beehive.enter	subtitles.block.beehive.enter​	0.75	0.7–0.8
	​Bee leaves hive	Blocks	When a bee exits a bee nest	block.beehive.exit	subtitles.block.beehive.exit​	0.75	0.9–1.1
	​Shears scrape	Blocks	When honeycombs are collected from a bee nest	block.beehive.shear	subtitles.block.beehive.shear​	0.8	0.8–1.0
	​Bees work	Blocks	Randomly while a bee is inside	block.beehive.work	subtitles.block.beehive.work​	0.6	1.0
	​Bucket fills	Blocks	When a bottle is filled with honey[sound 1]	bucket.fill_water	subtitles.item.bucket.fill​	1.0	1.0

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Translation key
Bee Nest	bee_nest	Block & Item	beehives	block.minecraft.bee_nest

Name	Identifier
Block entity	beehive

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Bee Nest	bee_nest	473	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.bee_nest.name

Name	Savegame ID
Block entity	Beehive

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	east north south west	The opposite from the direction the player faces while placing the block.
honey_level	0	0 1 2 3 4 5	Every pollinated bee that leaves the hive after working increases the honey level by one. When at level 5, honey can be bottled or honeycombs can be harvested.

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
direction	Not Supported	0	0 1 2 3	Unsupported	The direction the block faces. 0: south 1: west 2: north 3: east
honey_level	Not Supported	0	0 1 2 3 4 5	Unsupported	Every pollinated bee that leaves the hive after working increases the honey level by one. When at level 5, honey can be bottled or honeycombs can be harvested.

A bee nest has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Java Edition
1.15			19w34a				Added bee nests.
			19w35a				Oak and birch trees generated from saplings can no longer have bee nests.
							Bee nests now cannot generate unless there is air in front of the front side of the nest.
							Bee nests are now flammable.
			19w42a				"Bee nest" has been renamed to "Bee Nest".
1.15.2			pre1				Oak and birch saplings grown within 2 blocks of a flower on the same Y-level have a 5% chance to have a bee nest, making bee nests a renewable resource.
							Bee nests now have a 2% chance to spawn in flower forests.
							Bee nests now have a 0.2% chance to spawn in forest, wooded hills, birch forest, tall birch forest, birch forest hills, and tall birch hills biomes.
1.16			20w13a				Bee nests now appear yellow on maps.
1.18			experimental snapshot 2				Bee nests now have a high chance to spawn in meadows.​[more information needed]
			21w39a				Bee nests now have a 100% chance to spawn in meadows.
1.19			22w14a				Bee nests now have a 5% chance to spawn in mangrove trees as well as inside mangrove swamps.
1.19.4 Experiment Update 1.20			23w07a				Bee nests now have a 5% chance to spawn in cherry trees as well as inside cherry groves.
1.21.2			24w35a				Now show information about their level of honey and number of bees in their tooltip.
							Now use their "full" texture when held or in the inventory, and they are at max level of honey.

Bedrock Edition
1.14.0			beta 1.14.0.1				Added bee nests.
			beta 1.14.0.3				"Bee nest" has been renamed to "Bee Nest".
1.16.0			beta 1.15.0.51				Oak and birch saplings grown within 2 blocks of a flower on the same y-level now have a 5% chance to have a bee nest.
			beta 1.16.0.57				Bee nests now have a 3% chance to generate in flower forest.
							Bee nests now have a 5% chance to generate in plains and sunflower plains.
							Bee nests now have a 0.035% chance to generate in forest, wooded hills, birch forest, tall birch forest, birch forest hills, and tall birch hills biomes.
1.16.100			beta 1.16.100.54				Now appear yellow on maps.
1.18.30			beta 1.18.20.27				Breaking a bee nest with Silk Touch no longer angers bees.
1.19.0			beta 1.19.0.20				Bee nests now have a chance to spawn in mangrove trees as well as inside mangrove swamps.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.20.21				Decreased the blast resistance of bee nests from 2.7 to 0.3.
1.21.40			Preview 1.21.40.20				Bee nests can no longer be used as fuel in a furnace.

Java Edition
1.20.5			24w06a				FlowerPos in beenest has been renamed to flower_pos.

Issues relating to "Bee Nest" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

• Beehive
• Tutorial:Honey farming

• 
  Facing south
• 
  Facing west
• 
  Facing north
• 
  Facing east
• 
  Facing south, with honey
• 
  Facing west, with honey
• 
  Facing north, with honey
• 
  Facing east, with honey

• 
  An oak tree with a bee nest.

• 
  A bee flying next to a bee nest.
• 
  3 bee nests generated close to each other.
• 
  2 bee nests found close together, found in birch forest.

• 
  Artwork of several bees near a bee nest.