Minecraft: Java Edition is abuzz thanks Mojang’s latest update. That’s right. Honey bees have fluttered into a number of biomes, setting up shop to pollinate flowers and create honey. If you’ve ever wanted to a be a real life beekeeper but have been irrationally dissuaded by Nicolas Cage’s performance in The Wicker Man, now’s your chance (yes, the bees).
Bees are a neutral mob, which means they’ll leave you be if you leave them be (no pun intended). Java Edition players will find them buzzing around in sunflower plains, plains, and flower forest biomes. Please do let them complete their work without interruption, as honey bees are an integral part of nature. When agitated, the cute bees naturally will sting you. This causes them to lose their stinger and die. There’s no tangible benefit for making the bees angry, as they don’t leave anything behind that you can use in your world. Instead, you’ll have slowed down their important bee duties.
Bees favor the prettiest flowers and will work their hardest to collect pollen to bring to their hives. During their journey back home, bees pollinate crops to help them grow. Once again, harming a bee is not good beekeeping practice for a number of reasons. As they find their favorite flowers, they will share the good news with their bee buddies, who will then chip in on the work. Each successful journey back to the hive will increase the honey level.
This is important. To harvest the honey, you need to use your tools with a silken touch. If you don’t, you’ll just destroy the hive. At the max honey level of five, you can use shears to secure a honeycomb and a bottle to get a delicious honey bottle. You can take a giant swig from the bottle or even turn it into sugar.
Honeycomb can be combined with wood planks to create artificial bee hives. This is where your beekeeping journey really begins. When bees can’t find a nearby home, they wander — hence the need for more bee hives to keep your fledgling beekeeping business humming along.
Mojang offered some helpful tips about bee personalities. They sleep at night after a hard day on the job and will flock to their nests during rainfall. Smoke emitted from campfires keeps them calm, so setting one up under hives is a smart play if you want your new friends to kick back their stingers and relax.
As of now, bees have only found their way into biomes in Minecraft: Java Edition. Let’s hope digital bees will coexist nicely with real bees when Minecraft Earth arrives.
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