Bee

Bees are flying neutral mobs that live in bee nests and beehives. Bees pollinate flowers and, when they do, add honey to their home when they return to it. When full, bee nests or beehives can be harvested with shears for honeycombs or glass bottles for honey bottles. If provoked by being attacked or breaking or harvesting their hive or nest without the correct precautions, bees suicidally attack in a swarm.

Spawning[]

Natural generation[]

Naturally generated bee nests generate with 3 bees in them.

Naturally-generated birch or oak trees have equal chances to generate with a bee nest, depending on the biome:

Biome	Chance
	JE	BE
Meadow	100%
Plains Sunflower plains	5%
Mangrove Swamp	5%	4%
Flower forest	2%	3%
Forest Birch forest Old growth birch forest	0.2%	0.035%
Cherry Grove	?%	?%

Saplings[]

Oak, birch and mangrove trees grown from saplings that are within 2 blocks of any flower have a 5% chance to grow with a bee nest having 1–3 bees in it.

Drops[]

Upon death, adult bees drop 1–3 orbs when killed by a player or a tamed wolf.

Upon breeding successfully, 1–7 is dropped.

Like other baby animals, killing a baby bee yields no experience.

Behavior[]

Bees do not fly (like ghasts or the ender dragon), but instead hover a few blocks above the ground similar to bats and parrots.

Bees are arthropods and take increased damage from the Bane of Arthropods enchantment.^[1] In Java Edition, they take damage when touching water,^[2] but in Bedrock Edition they don't.^[3]

Bees can be attached to a lead, even when angered. They can still attack while attached.

Bees usually venture up to 22 blocks from their beehive to find something they can pollinate or to attack someone. Bees can venture further away if necessary.

A bee can fly horizontally and vertically upward through scaffolding but does not fly downward. A bee does not fly through an open trap door or regular door on its own (a bee can be led through a door with a flower) but babies can fly through the gap above a fence gate in a 1×2 doorway.

Despite that they appear to be flying, bees can destroy turtle eggs when on top of them.^[4]

Pollinating[]

Bees leave their nest one by one during the day. They fly around their nests, and are attracted to flowers, flowering azaleas, flowering azalea leaves, mangrove propagules, pink petals, cherry leaves, spore blossoms and chorus flowers. Bees can pollinate wither roses and die as a result, despite that wither roses are harmful to them.^[5] Bees completely ignore flowers in flower pots.^[6][7]

After circling a flower or berry bush for about 30 seconds while making happy buzzing sounds, a bee collects pollen. A bee carrying pollen changes its texture to include pollen spots on its abdomen, and drops pollen particles to fertilize plants below the bee.

Bees that have pollen may pollinate wheat crops, potato crops, carrot crops, beetroot crops, melon stems, sweet berry bushes, pumpkin stems, cave vines, and torchflower crops they fly over. When one of these plants gets pollinated, it advances to another growth stage, similar to using bone meal. To pollinate a plant, bee must be 1 to 2 blocks directly above the plant and must have a valid home hive. A bee can fertilize plants 10 times each time they have pollen, and whether fertilization is attempted each tick is random (approximately a 1% chance).

Afterward, the bee flies back into its hive/nest and makes honey. It takes about 2 minutes for the bee to do this. That increases the amount of honey in a hive/nest by 1; there is a 1% chance for it to increase by 2. When the amount reaches 5, honey can be seen dripping from the bottom and front of the hive/nest. A hive/nest must have 5 honey inside before a player can collect honeycombs or honey bottles.

Housing[]

Bees live together in colonies and take any bee nest or beehive that has enough space as their home. One bee nest or beehive can house up to 3 bees. Homeless bees wander around, searching for empty beehives. Bees can enter a beehive from any side, but exit only from the front. One-way bee-gates can be made in this way.

Bees return to their nest when it rains or when it is night. They return even when in biomes that don't rain like desert. They stay in their nest or hive for at least 2400 game ticks (2 minutes) before coming back out. The bees that come out keep their data (health, name, etc.).

Breaking a nest or hive that contains bees releases all the bees. If a bee nest containing bees is harvested using a tool enchanted with Silk Touch, the bees inside are kept, with their corresponding data, in the hive. They can exit the hive again when it is placed.

When a bee that has pollen enters and then leaves its nest or hive, the honey level of the nest or hive is increased by one. When the honey level of that hive reaches 5, the player can harvest it, which then sets it back to 0.

Because there is neither daylight cycle nor weather in the Nether and the End, bees work without resting in these dimensions. This behavior is distinct from that of the villagers, which follow their daily routine according to the time in the Overworld, regardless of which dimension they are in.

Attacking[]

All bees nearby are angered when an individual bee is attacked (unless the bee attacked is killed in one hit‌^{[Java Edition only]}), honey or honeycombs are collected (unless a campfire is placed under the nest), or a beehive is destroyed. Hitting or walking on a nest does not anger bees; it must be destroyed to anger them. When destroyed, a beehive releases any bees that it contained, and these bees are angry. If the beehive is destroyed with a Silk Touch tool, bees outside the hive become angry ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]},^[8] while those kept within it remain neutral even after the hive is placed again.

Bees attack and swarm the player as a group when angered, and the eyes of angered bees turn red. Collecting a honeycomb or a honey bottle from a nest or hive causes the bees that are currently in that nest or hive to leave and swarm the player unless a campfire is placed below the hive. Bees attack only once, similarly to llamas and non-aggressive pandas. Bees do not deal any damage in Peaceful difficulty.

If the player deflects a bee's attack with a shield, the bee continues attacking until it succeeds in hitting the player.

When a bee's attack on a player succeeds, the player is poisoned. A bee loses its stinger after a successful attack, cannot attack further, and dies approximately one minute later. This can be delayed with potions (Regeneration/Resistance/Absorption) that have a 255 potency.

It is possible to (quickly) breed at least one angered bee with another, even if it or they had stung and lost the stinger. However, they remain angered and still die later due to having lost their stingers.

Bees also swarm and attack other mobs when damaged; for example, if a skeleton accidentally shoots a bee.

Bees become neutral if they fail to land a hit on their target within 25 seconds.

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  The stinging animation; the bee can remain upside down for longer periods of time if a distance is kept.

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  Prior to stinging

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  After stinging

In Java Edition, a bee's stinger is visible on the player as a small black dot after the bee successfully attacked.

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Honey Blocks[]

Bees attach themselves to honey blocks, as if they are "eating" the block.

Breeding[]

Bees follow players holding flowers, flowering azalea, cherry leaves, flowering azalea leaves and mangrove propagule. If the player is standing still and being followed by bees, the bees go toward the player, face the player, and rest on the ground. They do this until the player moves.

If bees are given a flower, they enter love mode and pair up to create baby bees, granting the player 1-7 experience. The parent bees have a cooldown of 5 minutes (6000 ticks) before they can breed again. Babies take 20 minutes (1 in-game day) to grow up. The growth of baby bees can be accelerated using flowers; each use reduces the remaining time by 10%. However, bees' growth timer and breeding cooldowns are frozen while working in a hive; thus, when rapidly growing a population, it may be desirable to temporarily remove the hives.

Any of the 1- or 2-block flowers can be used for breeding, including the wither rose,^[9] even though it usually harms bees that touch it.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Bees use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Bee buzzes	Friendly Creatures	While a bee is passive and moving horizontally	entity.bee.loop	subtitles.entity.bee.loop	varies [sound 1] [sound 2]	0.98-1.14 (Baby: 1.54-1.7) [sound 3]	6
	Bee buzzes angrily	Friendly Creatures	While a bee is hostile and moving horizontally	entity.bee.loop_aggressive	subtitles.entity.bee.loop_aggressive	0.8 [sound 2]	0.98-1.14 (Baby: 1.54-1.7) [sound 3]	10
	Bee stings	Friendly Creatures	When a bee stings something	entity.bee.sting	subtitles.entity.bee.sting	1.0	1.0/0.8	16
	Bee dies	Friendly Creatures	When a bee dies	entity.bee.death	subtitles.entity.bee.death	0.4	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	Bee hurts	Friendly Creatures	When a bee is damaged	entity.bee.hurt	subtitles.entity.bee.hurt	0.4	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7) [sound 4]	16
	Bee buzzes happily	Friendly Creatures	While a bee is collecting pollen	entity.bee.pollinate	subtitles.entity.bee.pollinate	0.8	1.0	12

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Friendly Creatures	When a bee dies	mob.bee.death	0.6	0.9-1.1 (Baby: 1.4-1.6)
	Friendly Creatures	When a bee is damaged	mob.bee.hurt	0.6	0.9-1.1 (Baby: 1.4-1.6)
	Friendly Creatures	While a bee is passive and moving horizontally	mob.bee.loop	0.6	1.0 (Baby: 1.5)
	Friendly Creatures	While a bee is hostile and moving horizontally	mob.bee.aggressive	0.6	1.0 (Baby: 1.5)
	Friendly Creatures	While a bee is collecting pollen	mob.bee.pollinate	0.85	1.0 (Baby: 1.5)
	Friendly Creatures	When a bee stings something	mob.bee.sting	0.6	0.8-1.0 (Baby: 1.3-1.5)

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Bee	bee	beehive_inhabitors	entity.minecraft.bee

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Bee	bee	122	entity.bee.name

Entity data[]

Bees have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other
		Bee our guest	Use a Campfire to collect Honey from a Beehive using a Bottle without aggravating the bees.	—	15G	Bronze
		Total Beelocation	Move and place a Bee Nest, with 3 bees inside, using Silk Touch.	—	30G	Silver
		Sticky Situation	Slide down a honey block to slow your fall.	—	30G	Silver

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Sticky Situation	Jump into a Honey Block to break your fall	Adventure	Collide on a vertical side of a honey block when in air.	adventure/honey_block_slide
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	Bee Our Guest	Use a Campfire to collect Honey from a Beehive using a Glass Bottle without aggravating the Bees	Husbandry	Use a glass bottle on a beehive or bee nest while not angering the bees inside.	husbandry/safely_harvest_honey
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Trader Llama Turtle Wolf A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/breed_an_animal
	Total Beelocation	Move a Bee Nest, with 3 Bees inside, using Silk Touch	Husbandry	—	husbandry/silk_touch_nest
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed a pair of each of these 24 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/bred_all_animals

History[]

Java Edition
1.15		19w34a			Added bees and baby bees.
					Bees and baby bees can become angry and attack the player.
					Bees and baby bees can pollinate flowers and show the nectar on them after doing so.
					Bees and baby bees that have pollinated flowers can become angry and attack the player.
		19w35a			Bees now try to avoid water.
					Bee nests now spawn less frequently, making bees rarer.
					Breeding bees now counts toward the "Two by Two" advancement.
		19w36a			Bees are now affected by the Bane of Arthropods enchantment.
					Bees are now able to pollinate on a lilac, rose bush, and peony flowers.
					The textures of bees have been tweaked. The gradation part for picking up the color has been removed and the translucent pixels are now fully transparent.[10]
					"bee_angry_nectar" now has same pollen pattern as "bee_nectar", which has changed the textures from to .[11]
					Bees no longer stop flying after reaching the player they are following.
		19w41a			Bees now "eat" honey blocks.
		19w46a			Bees now exit beehives only from the front.
1.15.2		pre1			Bees no longer anger when a nearby nest/hive is destroyed using a Silk Touch tool.
					Bees now remember how many crops they have pollinated.
					Bees no longer stay in the hive/nest forever after riding a minecart or boat.
1.16		20w12a			The maximum distance a bee can wander away from its home hive when randomly wandering has been reduced to around 22 blocks.
1.17		21w13a			Bees now see flowering azalea and flowering azalea leaves as flowers.
1.19		22w11a			Bees now see mangrove propagule as flowers.[12]
1.20 (Experimental)		1.19.4 Pre-release 1			Bees now see cherry leaves, pink petals, and torchflowers as flowers.[13]
1.20.2		23w33a			Bees now see spore blossom and chorus flower as flowers.[14]
Bedrock Edition
1.14.0		beta 1.14.0.1			Added bees.
					Bees and baby bees can become angry and attack the player.
					Bees and baby bees can pollinate flowers and show the nectar on them after doing so.
					Bees and baby bees that have pollinated flowers can become angry and attack the player.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.63			Bees no longer fly faster when swarming a player or mob.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.50			Bees are now attracted to flowering azalea and flowering azalea leaves.
		beta 1.17.0.56			Bees no longer gather nectar from sweet berry bushes.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Bee" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• Bees are the only arthropod mob that can exist in Peaceful difficulty and are not necessary to earn the Monster Hunter or Monsters Hunted advancements.
• Bees were made to be half a block in size because Mojang considered this size to be the cutest.^[15]
• Bees pollinate the top half of sunflowers.
• Despite repeated efforts (1.15, 1.16, possibly 1.18) to limit the range bees can move and get lost beyond, they go northwest overall, as did horses long-before. Building an apiary can avoid this.

Gallery[]

Renders[]

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  A bee.

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  A bee with pollen on it.

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  An angry bee.

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  An angry bee with pollen on it.

Animations[]

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  A bee flying in Java Edition.

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  A bee in Bedrock Edition.

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  A bee flying in Bedrock Edition.

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  A bee stinging.

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  A bee bobbing.

Cosmetics[]

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  Bee Friender, a skin featured in the Builders & Biomes skin pack.

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  Secondary Bee Friender.

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  Bee Jumper

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  Bee Onesie by Senior Studios

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  Bee Shirt!

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  Bee Tanktop by Syclone Studios

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  Plastic texture pack

Screenshots[]

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  A naturally generated bee nest in a Superflat village.

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  A tree with a bee nest in the center of a player-made garden of crops.

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  A bee pollinating.

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  Bees attacking a llama.

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  A bee in a forest.

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  Bees on leads.

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  A bee.

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  Bees in a flower forest.

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  The inside of a bee.

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  Some bees sleeping in the 15th anniversary celebration map.

Concept Art[]

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  An unreleased bee texture and model.

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  A concept of a bee during development.

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  An old bee design from Henrik Kniberg's video https://youtu.be/I8vYcrgjLAo?t=1879

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  Concept art for bee-themed items in the character creator.

In other media[]

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  Artwork

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  Artwork of a beehive on oak with bees around it.

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  Bees in promotional artwork for the Buzzy Bees Update.

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  A Bee in Caves & Cliffs: Part I update artwork.

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  Bees in banner for Education Edition 1.14.31.

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  Bees in one of the Minecraft backgrounds for Microsoft Teams

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  Several bees as drawn on an NPC.

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  Another bee-themed NPC.

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  Officially licensed bee plush.

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  Lego Minecraft minifigure

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  "Craft Without Limits," an official T-Shirt design featuring a bee.

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  "Bee Pocket," a shirt design similiar to Craft Without Limits, but with a pocket.

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  "I ❤️Minecraft," an official hoodie design featuring two bees.

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  A woman holding an officially licensed bee moodlight.

Textures[]

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

  Stinger

See also[]

• Bee nest
• Beehive
• Honey Bottle
• Honeycomb

References[]