Overview
Buzzy Bees, released as 1.15, came after the enormous Village & Pillage and deliberately did very little, which turned out to be the right call twice over. The visible half is one mob done carefully. Bees live in nests on trees in flower forests, plains and meadows, fly out to pollinate crops — a pollinated crop advances a growth stage immediately — and return to fill their nest with honey over five levels. Harvest with shears for honeycomb or a bottle for honey, and if you do it without a campfire smoking underneath, the whole hive turns hostile at once and stings you in a swarm, which is memorable the first time. Honey bottles cure Poison and restore hunger, and a bee farm is one of the few farms that pays you in both food and building material. The half nobody predicted is the Honey Block. It slows anything walking on it, cancels most fall damage, and crucially drags entities along with it when a piston pushes it — which made honey the counterpart to slime in every flying machine and door mechanism built since. The rest of the release was bug fixing and performance work on 1.14's rough edges.
Bees that speed up crop growth through pollination, honey and honeycomb as renewable food and building material, beeswax for copper much later on, and honey blocks, which became one of the most important redstone components in the game.
A deliberately small update after the enormous 1.14, focused on one new mob done well. Bees pollinate crops for a growth boost, produce honey harvestable with shears or a bottle, and turn hostile as a swarm if you take honey without a campfire beneath the nest. Honey blocks quietly became one of the most important redstone components in the game, since they move players and entities with them when pushed by pistons.
How to get it
Java Edition 1.15 was released on 10 December 2019 and was followed by 1.15.2 within 6 weeks, which is the build worth running if you want this content. Its main purpose beyond bees was cleaning up performance problems that shipped with 1.14.
Tips
- Place a campfire under a nest before harvesting: without it every bee in the hive turns hostile, and a nest holds 3 of them.
- A nest reaches honey level 5 before it can be harvested — check for the dripping particles rather than guessing.
- Use silk touch to move a nest with its bees inside; breaking it without silk touch releases an angry swarm and loses the bees.
- Honey blocks slow you down and stick to pistons, so use them where slime's bounciness would be a problem.
Version notes
Released 10 December 2019. Added bees, bee nests, beehives, honey bottles, honeycomb, honeycomb blocks and honey blocks, plus a substantial round of performance and bug fixing after 1.14.
What it added
- Bees, which pollinate crops and defend their nests aggressively
- Bee nests generating naturally on trees in flower forests, plains and meadows
- Beehives, the craftable equivalent
- Honey bottles, which cure Poison and restore hunger
- Honey blocks, which slow movement and drag entities along with them
- Honeycomb and honeycomb blocks
- Substantial bug fixing and performance work
Properties
Minecraft 1.15 was released on December 10, 2019 as a major release. It added 1 mobs, 4 blocks and items the site documents, and 0 generated structures.
- New blocks and items
- 4
- New structures
- 0
New mobs
Bee arrived in this release.
New blocks and items
Bee Nest, Beehive, Honey Block, and Honeycomb Block were added, and each has its own page with the recipe, the drops and the break times.
Where it sits in the release line
1.15 sits 13 of 28 in the release list this site covers, with 1.16 after it and 1.14 before.
Worlds always upgrade forwards and never downgrade: a world opened in a newer version cannot be opened in an older one again, so back it up before the first launch on a new release.
| Version | Name | Released | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Minecraft 1.16 | Nether Update | June 23, 2020 | Major release |
 | Minecraft 1.15 ← | Buzzy Bees | December 10, 2019 | Major release |
 | Minecraft 1.14 | Village & Pillage | April 23, 2019 | Major release |
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you harvest honey without angering bees?
Put a lit campfire directly beneath the nest or hive. The smoke calms the bees, and you can then use shears for honeycomb or a bottle for honey safely.
What do bees actually do for a farm?
A bee that has pollinated a flower will advance a nearby crop's growth by one stage as it passes, so a flower bed beside a field measurably speeds up harvests.
Why are honey blocks important for redstone?
They pull entities — players, mobs and items — along with them when moved by pistons, which is exactly the behaviour flying machines and sticky door designs need.
What did Minecraft 1.15 add?
Bees, which pollinate crops and defend their nests aggressively Bee nests generating naturally on trees in flower forests, plains and meadows Beehives, the craftable equivalent
When was Minecraft 1.15 released?
Java Edition 1.15 was released on December 10, 2019. Bedrock dates for the same content often differ by days or weeks.