Tutorials/Snow farming

Snow farms allow for quickly obtaining a large amount of snowballs, which can be further crafted into snow blocks and snow layers. The easiest way to make a snow farm is to use snow golems to produce the snow, which is what most farms use.

Usage
There are many benefits to making a snow farm. Here is a list of some of them:
 * To combine with a pumpkin farm, allowing the construction of a huge army of snow golems, which can be used to either throw snowballs at mobs, or to produce more snow.
 * Snow blocks are a decent building material as long as they don't have to resist explosions; contrary to all logic, they don't melt. Thus, an easy-to-build snow farm (and a material to make lots of shovels) can avoid the need to haul many stacks of cobblestone or other material to a build site for constructing large farms.
 * Hostile mobs cannot spawn on snow layers stacked 2 or more deep, if light sources aren't desired for a build.
 * Endermen cannot teleport onto snow layers stacked 10 or more deep.
 * To use as weapons against blazes, saving the durability of your sword or bow for other mobs.

Materials
Before creating a snow farm, make sure that you have all of the materials. Here is a list of the materials you will need to build a snow farm:
 * Two snow blocks
 * One pumpkin
 * One block that is not broken quickly with a shovel and which can have snow layers placed on it, such as stone or cobblestone.
 * Additional blocks to confine the golem and protect it from rain, depending on the farm location.

To operate the farm, the player will need one or more shovels and inventory space sufficient to collect a lot of snowballs. Note that snowballs only stack to 16. However, 4 snowballs can be crafted into snow blocks, which stack to 64, and yield the 4 snowballs used to craft them when mined. So, if you're running out of inventory space, you can craft the snowballs into snow blocks. Later, when you are ready to use the snowballs, place the blocks on the ground and mine them.

Location
The farm must be built in a biome where a snow golem can survive and generate snow. Thus, the farm cannot be built in the Nether, deserts (all variants), mesas (all variants), or savannas (except variants listed below), and it also must be built above certain altitudes in other biomes, due to temperature decrease with altitude: Snow farms can be built an any altitude in cold and snowy biomes, which are stone beaches, taigas, extreme hills, cold taigas, and ice plains biomes (as well as variants).
 * Above Y≈64 in plains, sunflower plains, swamps (including M), and beaches
 * Above Y≈124 in mushroom islands and shore
 * Above Y≈154 in jungles and variants
 * Above Y≈184 in savanna plateau and savanna plateau M
 * Above Y≈244 in savanna M

Snow farms can be built at any level in river biomes (without the snow golem melting), which are reasonably easy to find, even in areas full of deserts, savannas, and mesas. If you are near an ocean, your farm will work on an island, even if it is next to a desert or other hot biome.

One nice thing you can take advantage of is the fact that even if you completely drain a river, it will still stay a river biome, and therefore allow snow farms. This applies to oceans as well, but it is much easier to drain up a section of a river than it is to drain up a section of an ocean.

Build


For most snow farms, the player constructs a snow golem, trapped in a 1×1 space. The golem should be standing on a block that can support snow layers and isn't quickly destroyed by shovels, and where the player can easily target that block. Here is a step-by-step guide for how to make a snow farm using snow golems:


 * 1) Place the floor block, where the golem will stand. Typically this is one level above where the player will stand, i.e. the player can and must jump to be able to stand on the block.
 * 2) Place the two snow blocks, one on top of the other, on top of the floor block.
 * 3) Place blocks around the upper snow block to keep the golem from leaving the farm. Full blocks will likely work better than fences, as they constrain the golem's movement to a smaller area.
 * 4) Place the pumpkin on top of the upper snow block, which will spawn the golem in place of the snow blocks.
 * 5) If the golem is in a position where it might be exposed to rain, place a block above it to prevent this.

Here are some suggestions of ways to enhance your snow farm:


 * Include hoppers to collect snowballs and feed them into chests when the player's inventory is full
 * Add a hopper minecart under the floor block for the same purpose
 * Make a mechanism to dispense extra shovels into the player's hand, as existing shovels break.
 * Make the area around the snow golem larger, so that more snow can be produced, and the golem won't be confined so much.

Video tutorials
See these videos for examples of ways to make a snow farm using golems.

Operation
To operate the snow farm, simply stand next to the golem's floor block, equip a shovel, aim at the snow layer on top of that block without hitting the golem itself, and hold the control.

Note that the durability on the shovel will go down very quickly: a new stone shovel (without Unbreaking) will break in about 13 seconds after producing 16.5 stacks of snowballs (enough to make 66 snow blocks), and an iron shovel will break in about 25 seconds after producing 31.375 stacks of snowballs (enough to make 125 snow blocks with 2 snowballs left over). Unless you have an iron golem farm or plenty of iron, it is recommended to use a stone shovel, because stone shovels dig up snow at the same speed as gold, iron, and diamond, and the fact that cobblestone is extremely common and renewable. However, using stone shovels means that they have less durability, so make sure to bring plenty.

Also, remember to enable the mobGriefing gamerule; otherwise, the golem will be unable to create snow.