How to harvest honey in Minecraft without getting stung

Minecraft 1.15 version with the Buzzy Bees update saw the inclusion of bees in the game. This update along with bees added all the other items that are bee related such as Honey bottle, Beehives and Honeycombs. After the bees were added, players sought out ways to collect the honey produced by the bees.

Honey is the only food source in Minecraft that comes in a bottle and when consumed it eliminates any poison effect and also restores three chunks of heart. This makes it a better alternative to milk, which removes all the effects even the positive ones when consumed.

Players can tell by carefully examining the beehive whether there is honey in it or not. If the hive is filled with honey, players will be able to see the honey overflowing outside the beehive indicating that it is ready to be harvested.

Honey can be seen dripping out of the hive (Image via Minecraft Wiki)

However, harvesting honey is not that easy because doing it directly will anger the bees and they will attack the players, stinging them in the process. If the player tries to defend themselves and retaliate, all the other bees in the nearby vicinity will join in on the attack.

Hence, when farming for honey avoiding angry bees is necessary and this can be done majorly via two ways.

---

Farming Honey in Minecraft without angering the bees

These are 2 methods to farm honey in Minecraft without getting stung:

1) Using Campfire

Honey can be harvested peacefully by putting a campfire below a bee hive (Image via Minecraft WIki)

One of the most common ways to farm honey without the danger of being stung is by using a lit campfire. The smoke from the campfire cools the bees down and stops them from aggravating and attacking the player when they collect honey.

However, the fire from the campfire can also hurt the bees and kill them which is not ideal if the player wants to create an efficient bee farm.

By placing a carpet over the campfire in Java Edition the fire will be hidden but smoke will still be visible (image via Minecraft Wiki))

To avoid this from happening, players in Minecraft Java Edition can place the campfire one block below ground level and cover it with a carpet. The carpet covers the campfire but not the smoke hence now the bees can easily roam around without the danger of being burnt.

However, putting a carpet over a campfire in Minecraft Bedrock Edition does not work as it even stops the smoke, an alternative would be to put fences around the campfire so that the bees cannot fly in the fire.

---

2) Using Redstone contraption

The other way to harvest honey without aggravating the bees is by using a redstone contraption. Using a Dispenser with either a bottle or shear, honey can be harvested without provoking an angry response.

This happens because by activating the dispenser using redstone the game is unable to comprehend who activated the block as a result of which it cannot assign a target for bees to attack.

Hence, this method prevents the players from being stung by bees while harvesting their hive for honey.