Beehive/Usage

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.