How to harvest honey in Minecraft easily

Honey is a great item to have in Minecraft and boasts a variety of uses. It can help remove poison, feed players, and can also be crafted into honey blocks and sugar.

A byproduct of bees, players can use bee nests or even man-made beehives to house bees and allow them to create honey and honeycombs that they can harvest. Normally, taking these animals' products will enrage them, but by using items such as campfires, the bees can be pacified and their products can be harvested safely. With this in mind, it doesn't take much material or time to create a solid bee farm that allows for the quick and painless collection of honey.

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Harvesting honey in Minecraft: Setting up a bee farm

A man-made beehive block (Image via Mojang)

In order for Minecraft players to create beehives, they'll need to start with wooden planks and honeycombs. Honeycombs are obtained from bee nests and beehives once bees have brought a sufficient amount of pollen back home from their trips out to nearby flowers. The block will show honey oozing from it, and players can then use shears to collect honeycombs from the nest. Players should make sure to drop a fire-generating block such as a campfire or lit netherrack two blocks under the nest in order to keep the bees from attacking them.

It takes three honeycombs to create a beehive in Minecraft, so it may take a few harvestings to create enough hives for a solid farm. Once the hives are created, players should place them slightly above the ground with lit netherrack or campfires underneath to pacify their future inhabitants. Players should then return to wherever they've found bees nearby and either collect the bees once they've all entered their nest using a Silk Touch-enchanted tool or lead the bees to the new hives by holding flowers. Players should ensure that all the bees are out of the nest, or some may emerge from the nest and attack.

Once their old nest is gone, the Minecraft bees should be able to relocate to the new hives if they're close enough. Players can even use leads to bring the bees along to their new home if they don't have flowers available. Once the bees are re-homed, surround the hives with flowers. Bees will use these blocks to gather pollen and bring back to the hive. The closer the flowers are, the shorter the trip the bees will have to make and the faster Minecraft players can receive their honey.

Over time, the nests will quickly fill up with honey and begin to show an oozing effect similar to the way a natural bee nest would. As long as the fires keep the bees pacified, Minecraft players can collect the honey at will as it pops up. Players can then use extra flowers to breed extra bees, creating more hives as needed. The larger the operation, the more honey and honeycombs that can be collected. As long as the bees are relaxed due to the nearby smoke from fires, there should be no imminent danger to the player.