Honey is a unique item in Minecraft that you can only obtain from Bees, a new mob introduced in the 1.15 update.
They spawn in Bee nests or Beehive. Normally, Bees are a peaceful mob, but they can be angry at you at some point and start stinging you. So be careful when harvesting Honey!
Overall About Bees
If you want to get Honey in Minecraft, the first thing you need to do is to find Bee nests. Trees with any flower growing nearby can have a 5% chance to generate a Bee Nest on them.
Every day, Bees will come out from their Bee nest and start harvesting honey from nearby flowers.
After each time they’ve done their collecting mission and return to the nest, the honey level of that specific bee nest will be increased by one.
When the bee nest has a honey level equal to 5, you can harvest the honey from it in several ways.
Each way will have advantages and disadvantages respectively, so make sure to go through all the ways below to find one that is suitable for you the most!
First Step to Harvest Honey in Minecraft
The first thing you will need is a Crafting Table. It’s used to craft any item that requires more than a 2×2 crafting grid.
Let’s find any trees nearby and chop them down to get Log. Then put the Log in the crafting grid to craft 4x Planks.
Next, you want to put all Planks in the crafting grid in a 2×2 shape to craft 1x Crafting Table. Remember to place the Crafting Table down in order to use it.
Then you need to craft a Furnace. Just dig down a little bit and use your Pickaxe to mine Stone, they will drop Cobblestone. You will need at least 8x Cobblestone.
Right-click the Crafting Table and place the Cobblestone like this to craft 1x Furnace.
You will need Shears to collect Honeycomb. So let’s go mining and find some Iron Ores.
Within the new Minecraft 1.18 update, the ore distribution is changed so to find Iron Ores, you need to go really high or low. The best Y-axis for Iron ores is 232 and 16.
When you have the ores, then smelt them in the furnace to get Iron Ingot. You will need 2 of them.
Next just press E and place 2x Iron Ingot in the crafting grid like so to craft 1x Shears. You can use it 238 times before it’s broken.
When a bee nest or beehive reaches honey level 5, you can use the Shears and right-click on it to get 3x Honeycomb. Doing so will anger the bee so make sure to run away as fast as you can!
For Honey Bottle, you will need some Glass Bottles, which you can craft by putting 3x Glass in a V shape on the Crafting Table. And you can find Glass by smelting Sand in the Furnace.
Then instead of using a Shears on a Bee nest or Beehive with a honey level 5, use the Glass Bottle. You should receive 1x Honey Bottle per Glass bottle. Doing so also angers the bees inside the nest.
How do you get honey in Minecraft without getting stung?
Bees are quite dangerous, especially if they attack you in a large number. Bees can also give you poison status, which drains your health every second.
That’s why you should harvest honey with the right methods to avoid angering the bees.
First of all, you can craft a Campfire or use a Flint and Steel to lift a fire underneath the bee nest. This will prevent the bee from attacking you.
To craft a Campfire, you will need 3x Log, 3x Stick, and 1x Coal or Charcoal.
Then right-click a nearby Crafting Table and follow the recipe below to craft 1x Campfire. When you have a Campfire, just right-click to place it right beneath the Bee nest.
Flint and Steel can be crafted by using 1x Iron Ingot and 1x Flint. When you have a Flint and Steel, choose it and right-click the block below the bee nest to create a fire.
Another safe way to collect Honeycomb is to set up a Redstone contraption containing a Dispenser and a Lever.
Then you put a Shears in the Dispenser and activate the machine. It will act like you use the Shears on the bee nest and drop 3x Honeycomb.
If you want to collect Honey Bottle, just replace the Shears in the Dispenser with some Glass Bottles.
The advantage of collecting HoneyBottle compared to Honeycomb is the Dispenser can actually store the Honey Bottle when it’s getting collected.
So it’s quite useful to create an automatic farm without you being there.
Now you have Honeycomb, use it to make some Beehives and create a bee farm in your base. Or you can use Honeycomb to craft Candle, Honeycomb blocks, or waxing Copper blocks.
