5 things Minecraft players didn't know about beehives

A home for bees that players can create in Minecraft, beehives have a few uses that are apparent, as well as others that may not be.

Crafted with six wooden planks of any type and three honeycombs, beehives in Minecraft operate along the same lines as natural bee nests. However, all of the facts about both bee nests and hives may not be readily apparent to users without a bit of experimentation.

Regardless, there are a few facts about beehives that new or unfamiliar Minecraft gamers may not know right away. These are worth keeping in mind all the same, as individuals never quite know when they might come in handy.

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Minecraft: Fun facts about beehives players might not know

5) Dripping honey particles

Honey dripping from a hive (Image via Minecraft wiki)

Users who have placed their hives on the ground may not notice the faint particle effect that the hives give off when they're full of honey. Until harvested, small honey particles will fall to the ground.

This is a similar particle effect to how dripstone, lava, and other blocks sometimes appear in the environment. It's a subtle effect and is noticeable if gamers aren't placing their hives on the ground, but some may not notice it right away.

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4) Hives can be harvested with redstone machinery

Redstone machinery using the right tools can harvest honey, much like players (Image via Minecraft wiki)

Sometimes, Minecraft users don't want to spend too much time around their honey farm in the interest of moving on to other objectives. Due to this, some have opted to automate harvesting from their beehives.

Gamers can accomplish this in a few different ways, but redstone-friendly blocks can be a part of the solution. By using a dispenser with a glass bottle or shears in its inventory, they can harvest honey or honeycombs from a hive without doing it themselves.

The dispenser must be beside or facing the hive, but that's a small price to pay for harvesting materials.

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3) Hives emit comparator signals

Bee nests and hives emit comparator levels based on the amount of honey inside (Image via Mojang)

Sticking to redstone machinery in Minecraft, redstone comparators can benefit from beehives as well. Specifically, comparators can receive a signal from beehives based on the amount of honey present within the hive.

If the hive itself is full, then an adjacent comparator can emit a signal strength of five. This allows players to utilize beehives in complex redstone machinery, altering a comparator's signal output based on the honey level within the hive.

If users can manage to control how much honey is present within a hive at a given time, they can use honey to alter the way their redstone machinery operates.

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2) Hives can be used as fuel

Hives can fuel furnaces for a short amount of time (Image via Mojang)

If Minecraft gamers may have run out of fuel like coal or lava buckets to power their furnace, a beehive might be able to help. Since they're comprised of wood, beehives burn just fine inside a furnace block.

In Bedrock Edition, beehives can be placed within a furnace for the sake of fuel. Each beehive block smelts 1.5 items, which admittedly doesn't make it very economical.

For the most part, using a beehive as fuel should likely be a last resort in the event players are entirely out of fuel. Otherwise, many better fuel sources exist.

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1) Bees only exit from the front

Beehives are front-facing for a reason (Image via u/Argonzoyd/Reddit)

Likely due to the way beehives are built in Minecraft, bees aren't able to enter them from any direction. Bee nests don't have this issue, but beehives must load bees in from the front face of the block.

Since beehives are built almost like a box of sorts and only have one opening in their texture, this may be a reason why bees can only enter from the front.

Meanwhile, bee nests have multiple holes throughout their textures, and observant Minecrafters may notice that bees can enter nest blocks from any direction as long as the nest isn't flush with another block.

Note: This article reflects the author's views.