Beehive

Bee nests are naturally generated blocks that house bees.

Beehives are crafted versions of bee nests.

Obtaining


Hives can be mined by any tool or by the player's fist, though they break faster with an axe. Bee nests do not drop anything unless mined with Silk Touch, but hives drop empty if broken without Silk Touch. If broken with a tool enchanted with Silk Touch, the bees remain inside. Otherwise, they emerge from the hive and swarm the player unless a campfire is underneath it.

Natural generation


Bee nests generate hanging from oak and birch trees found in, and  biomes, containing several bees. A tree in these biomes has a 5% chance to have a bee nest, only during world generation or chunk generation. Bee nests are more commonly found in the flower forest biome because that biome has more trees than the others.

Bee housing
The hives can house up to 3 bees at a time. Bees fly into the nest at night, during rain, and after pollinating.

Harvesting
Pollinated bees fly into beehives and start working for a while. When done, they exit the hive, increasing the honey level by 1. When the honey level has reached 5, the block's appearance changes, indicating that it is full of honey, and produces dripping honey particles if suspended above the ground. If shears are on a full beehive, it drops three honeycombs. Unlike with shearing pumpkins, these honeycomb items are generated directly in the center of the block, causing them to spray everywhere; however this inconsistency is intended. If an empty glass bottle is used on a full beehive, the bottle fills with honey, becoming a honey bottle. Harvesting honey causes any bees inside the hive to become aggravated toward the player. If there is a lit campfire; or fire directly underneath the hive (campfire within five blocks underneath, without obstruction), harvesting the hive does not aggravate the bees inside. Using a dispenser with a or  via redstone to harvest the hive or nest also prevents the bees from attacking the player.

Redstone component
Beehives and bee nests have comparator output with a strength equal to the honey level in the block.

Block entity
A beehive has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Trivia

 * The terminology of a beehive being a man-made enclosure for bees is correct, as opposed to a naturally occurring bee nest.