The Ultimate How-To Guide for Productive Bees (Minecraft 1.21.1 & Beyond)

Welcome to the ultimate guide to Productive Bees, the mod that transforms Minecraft beekeeping into a fully-fledged automation empire. Whether you're brand new or looking to master advanced genetics, this guide covers everything you could possibly need. We’ll walk through vanilla mechanics, modded hives, breeding, centrifuges, gene editing, and every major machine and upgrade—step-by-step.

This guide is written on Minecraft 1.21.1, but Productive Bees works in nearly every modern version, so you’re good to go.

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1. Understanding Vanilla Bees (A Quick Refresher)

Productive Bees builds on vanilla mechanics—so knowing the basics is crucial.

Vanilla hives & behaviour

• Bee nests spawn naturally and contain honey levels (0–5).
• Craftable beehives work as adoptable homes.
• Bees leave during the day, pollinate flowers, and return at night or during rain.
• Bees won’t pollinate potted flowers.
• Pollinated bees drop visible pollen particles.
• A bee with pollen can fertilize crops such as wheat, carrots, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, sweet berries, and more.
• Bees can be bred with any flower.
• Harvest honey using shears (for honeycomb) or a glass bottle (for honey bottles).
• Place a campfire beneath the hive to avoid angering bees.

Silk Touch Reminder

• Vanilla nests require Silk Touch to keep bees inside.
• Productive Bees hives do not require Silk Touch.

2. The Big Book of Bees & Bee Cages

Bee Cage

Crafted using:

• 1 × Honey Bottle
• Any wood planks

Right-click a bee to capture it, and right-click the ground to release it. Bee cages make moving bees between hives absurdly easy.

The Big Book of Bees

Your essential reference guide—craft it early. It documents every bee, trait, hive, and mechanic the mod offers.

3. Finding & Spawning Bees Using Nests

Productive Bees adds a full ecosystem of new nests, each designed to spawn different modded bees.

Nest Locator

Shift-right-click the matching block type to tune it. It will then locate nests of that type (e.g., sand for a sand nest, grass for meadows).

Crafting Nests

Example:

Jungle Nest = Jungle Log + Wooden Sword

Place the nest and check JEI/Jade/for:

• Bee Spawning – which bees spawn from treats
• Flowering Requirements – which blocks count as pollination sources
• Biome Restrictions – some nests require the Nether or End

Spawning Bees with Honey Treats

Crafted from:

• Honeycomb
• Honey bottle

Right-click the nest with a treat. A cooldown timer appears; feed it more treats to accelerate spawning.

Examples:

• Jungle Nest → Green Carpenter Bee
• Gravel/Dirt/Sand Nests → Ashy Mining Bee
• Quartz Nest (in Nether, using Quartz) → Crystalline Bee
• Obsidian Nest (in End, using Dragon’s Breath) → Draconic Bee

4. Advanced Beehives

A major upgrade from vanilla beehives.

Crafting

Requires:

• Vanilla beehive
• Shears
• Campfire
• Honeycomb

Benefits

• Bees never get aggressive when harvesting
• No Silk Touch required
• Stores multiple bees
• Shows bee stats & hive contents
• Automatically produces honey bottles and honeycombs

Hive Expansion

Craft Expansion Boxes to increase bee capacity.

Attach them horizontally or vertically to raise hive population to 5 bees.

If you have Bumblezone, hives can also produce pollen puffs.

5. Centrifuges & Processing Honeycombs

Manual Centrifuge

Processes honeycombs into:

• Wax
• Liquid Honey

Powered Centrifuge

Requires FE energy, works faster. (Power from any mod you like.)

Heated Centrifuge

Consumes power, allows processing honeycomb blocks directly.

Outputs can be sent to pipes from any tech mod (Mekanism, Thermal, etc.).

Wax is used for:

• Honey treats
• Upgrades
• Additional crafting recipes
• Trading (with Bumblezone installed)

6. Breeding, Converting & Unlocking Modded Bees

The core of the mod: creating specialised bees that produce resources.

Finding Recipes

In JEI:

• Bee Spawning tab – how to spawn bees from nests
• Advanced Hive tab – what combs they produce
• Breeding tab – combinations needed
• Conversion tab – items required to convert one bee into another

Example: Making an Iron Bee

You need:

• Ashy Mining Bee (spawn from dirt/gravel/sand nest using a honey treat)
• Crystalline Bee (spawn from quartz nest using quartz)

Breed them using:

• Lily of the Valley (or any listed flower)

This produces:

• Tin Bee or Iron Bee, depending on RNG

(Repeat until you get Iron)

Breeding Chamber

Place two captured bees into cages → insert into chambers → feed the flowers → supply power → wait (or use speed upgrades).

Output goes into a new bee cage.

Incubation Chamber

Baby bees go here.

Insert honey treats to grow them into adults.

Conversion

Some bees don’t breed—they convert:

Example:

Right-click a Crystalline Bee with a Prosperity Block → Prosperity Bee.

7. Gene Editing (The Smart Way)

Every bee has genetics:

• Productivity
• Weather Tolerance
• Diurnal/Nocturnal
• Endurance
• Temperament

The Hard Way (Not Recommended)

1. Trap bee with bottler setup
2. Squash bee (press the button circled in blue, to drop the pistton).
3. Centrifuge remains
4. Extract gene samples
5. Combine in gene indexer

Fun? Yes. Efficient? Absolutely not.

The Smart Way

Use the Pokey Gene Sampler Upgrade in an advanced hive.

It:

• Passively extracts gene samples
• Doesn’t hurt bees
• Can be automated with pipes
• Outputs directly into your storage

Once you have 100% quality genes:

• Combine them with a honey treat
• Use in the incubator to imprint traits on new bees

This is how you create “perfect” production bees.

8. Machines: What They Do & Why You Need Them

Catcher

• Captures bees flying overhead
• Load with empty cages
• Add range/filter/baby upgrades
• Can lure bees using a flower or feeding slab on top

Feeding Slab

• Holds up to 3 items
• Feeds nearby bees
• Lumber & Quarry bees drop extra items when feeding
• Can hold honey for bee healing

Honey Generator

• Produces FE power using honey
• Accepts bottles, buckets, and piped fluids
• Supports speed & productivity upgrades

Bee Jar

• A decorative container to display your bees

Gene Indexer

• Combines gene samples into 100% sequences

Breeding & Incubation Machines

Already covered, but essential for controlled breeding lines.

9. Solitary Bees & Professional Bees

Solitary Bees

These spawn naturally in certain nests.

Use JEI to check:

• Where they spawn
• What nests they use
• Their required pollination blocks
• Their breeding items (if applicable)

Professional Bees

These bees perform jobs:

• Farmer Bee: Harvests crops within 4 blocks
• Rancher Bee: Milks/shears animals
• Lumber Bee: Gathers wood for automated tree farms
• Quarry Bee: Produces stone chips (craftable into stone variants)
• Dye Bees: Produces dyes based on flower colour
• Hoarder Bee, QB, etc.: Special resource-oriented roles

Each professional bee allows full automation of Minecraft resources with zero redstone.

10. Upgrades: Maximising Your Hives

All upgrades start with an Upgrade Base.

Productivity (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Omega)

• Increases output of combs/honey
• Up to +100–200% depending on version
• Uses modpack-specific rare materials

Speed & Speedier Upgrades

• Dramatically accelerate processing machines
• Speedier versions require Nether Stars
• Up to 4 upgrades per machine

Range Upgrade

• Extends hive or catcher range

Filter Upgrade

• Limits which bees are caught or stored

Simulator Upgrade

• Bees no longer physically fly
• Flower interaction is simulated
• Massive performance boost for servers

Puppy/Baby Upgrade

• Chance to spawn baby bees when honey is made
• Effectively free breeding

Anti-Teleportation

Stops teleport-capable bees escaping.

Block Output Upgrade

Produces resource blocks instead of combs.

Pollen Sieve

Bees deposit sifted pollen into hive storage.

11. Final Tips & Best Practices

• Use JEI constantly—nearly every bee, hive, and process includes detailed tooltips.
• Automate gene sampling early with pokey upgrades + item pipes.
• Use the simulator upgrade for large bee farms.
• Keep flowers close and nests in appropriate biomes to ensure bees function.
• Pair Productive Bees with a strong tech mod (Mekanism, Thermal, Powah) for optimal automation.
• Use expansion boxes to boost hive population to 5 bees.
• Always keep extra honey treats on hand—they’re used everywhere.

With these tools, you’re officially ready to become a master beekeeper in Productive Bees.