Productive Bees

Overview

Productive Bees adds a massive bee breeding and resource generation system to Minecraft. The mod introduces over a dozen solitary bee species that spawn naturally in biome-specific nests, profession bees like the Lumber Bee, Quarry Bee, and Farmer Bee that perform tasks in the world, and a configurable bee system that lets modpack authors add bees for virtually any resource. Through careful breeding chains, you can work your way up from basic Overworld bees to bees that produce Diamonds, Draconic materials, and even mob drops via the powerful WannaBee. You can browse every item and recipe this mod adds using the tabs at the top of this page.

The core loop is straightforward: find or spawn bees using nests, house them in Advanced Beehives with upgrades, collect their combs, and process those combs in a Centrifuge to extract resources. Layered on top of that are a genetics system for improving bee traits, a breeding chamber for safe automated breeding, and integration with dozens of other mods including Mystical Agriculture, Draconic Evolution, Mekanism, and Botania.

Nests and Bee Spawning

Productive Bees adds over 20 nest types that spawn naturally in the world and can also be crafted. The crafting pattern is simple: a Sword + the nest material. A Wooden Sword works for basic Overworld nests (Oak Log, Birch Log, Sand, Gravel, Snow, Coarse Dirt, Sugar Cane, Grass Block), an Iron Sword for mid-tier nests (Stone, Slime Block, Nether Bricks, Nether Quartz Ore, End Stone), and a Diamond Sword for rare nests (Obsidian, Nether Gold Ore).

Each nest spawns specific solitary bees. Solitary bees are the foundation of all breeding chains but do not produce combs on their own and will not enter Advanced Beehives. They live only in their home nest. Their sole purpose is breeding: combine two different solitary bees to create resource-producing bees that will happily live in your hives.

Key Solitary Bees

The Chocolate Mining Bee spawns from Coarse Dirt Nests in forest biomes. The Blue Banded Bee comes from Dark Oak Nests or Acacia Nests. The Mason Bee spawns from Stone Nests or Reed Nests in the Overworld. The Glowing Bee comes from Glowstone Nests in the Nether. The Crystalline Bee spawns from Nether Quartz Nests. The Ender Bee spawns from End Stone Nests in the End. These six bees form the backbone of most breeding chains for resource bees.

Alternative Spawning Methods

Beyond nests, you can find bees by exploring the Overworld (they appear as unmarked arrows on the map), by fishing in Rivers and Oceans (Water Bees are caught this way), or by trading with the Productive Bees Villager whose job block is an Advanced Beehive. The villager can sell bee spawn eggs at Master level. You can also craft a Nest Locator (Gold Nuggets + Iron Bars + Note Block) to find naturally generated nests within 100 blocks.

Breeding Chains

Breeding is how you create resource-producing bees from solitary parents. The simplest method is natural breeding: release two different bee species near Flowers, right-click both with a Flower, and they'll produce offspring. The baby bee needs time to grow up (or feed it Flowers to speed the process). JEI is essential here: left-click on any bee to see its breeding recipe (which two parents produce it). If left-clicking shows nothing, the bee comes from a nest instead.

Example: Getting a Diamond Bee

A Diamond Bee requires breeding an Ender Bee with a Lapis Bee. To get the Ender Bee, place an End Stone Nest in the End and use Honey Treats. For the Lapis Bee, you need to breed a Redstone Bee with a Blue Banded Bee. The Redstone Bee itself requires breeding a Chocolate Mining Bee (from Coarse Dirt Nest) with a Glowing Bee (from Glowstone Nest in the Nether). This chain takes some effort but illustrates the typical progression: gather solitary bees from nests, breed them into intermediate bees, then breed those into your target.

Shortcut: Direct Nest Spawning

Some resource bees can be spawned directly from nests instead of breeding. A Nether Gold Nest fed Gold Ingots in the Nether produces Gold Bees directly. A Nether Quartz Nest produces Crystalline Bees. Check JEI for whether a specific resource bee has a dedicated nest before embarking on a lengthy breeding chain.

Advanced Beehives and Upgrades

Advanced Beehives are the heart of your bee operation. They come in every wood variant (Oak, Spruce, Acacia, etc.) and can be wrapped in Paper to create Canvas variants for decorative customization via the Stonecutter. Every Advanced Beehive has slots for bees, an output inventory for combs and honey, and bottle slots for automatic honey collection. Adding an Expansion Box on top increases bee capacity from 3 to 5 and adds upgrade slots.

Upgrade System

All upgrades are crafted using an Upgrade Base (Sticks + Emeralds + Diamond + Honey Treat) as the core ingredient. Up to 4 upgrades can be installed in a hive. The most important upgrades are the Simulator Upgrade and Time Upgrades. The Simulator Upgrade lets bees produce combs without physically leaving the hive, which eliminates noise, prevents escape, and simplifies your setup. With simulation active, place the pollination block in front of the hive using a Feeding Slab and the bees will work silently.

Time Upgrades reduce the time bees spend inside the hive by 20% each, stacking up to 4 for an 80% reduction. This dramatically increases throughput. Productivity Upgrades multiply comb output by 1.4x each (stacking multiplicatively, so 4 upgrades = roughly 3.8x output). The Comb Block Upgrade is a game-changer for late game: it causes bees to produce Comb Blocks instead of individual combs, which is 4x the material per cycle.

Processing: Centrifuges

Combs are raw materials that must be processed in a Centrifuge to yield usable resources. The mod offers three tiers of centrifuge, each faster than the last. All centrifuges accept Time Upgrades for additional speed.

The basic Centrifuge (Grindstone + Cauldron) requires no power and processes combs in 300 ticks (15 seconds). It outputs the resource item, Wax, and Honey fluid. The Powered Centrifuge is 3x faster at 100 ticks (5 seconds) but requires 10 FE/tick of power. The Heated Centrifuge is the fastest option and can process Comb Blocks (from the Comb Block Upgrade), but it produces no Wax. This makes the Heated Centrifuge ideal for pure resource throughput when paired with the Comb Block Upgrade in late game setups.

Some combs also output fluids. The Centrifuge has internal fluid storage and will push fluids to adjacent tanks or pipes. The Honey fluid output can be piped directly into a Honey Generator for power.

Profession Bees

Not all bees produce combs. Productive Bees includes several profession bees that perform unique tasks in the world. The Lumber Bee harvests logs from nearby trees and deposits them in the hive. The Quarry Bee mines Stone, Clay, Dirt, and similar blocks. The Farmer Bee automatically harvests and replants crops in its range. The Rancher Bee milks Cows, shears Sheep, and collects resources from Llamas. The Collector Bee and Hoarder Bee pick up items from the ground within their range.

The Cupid Bee is a special utility bee that breeds nearby animals automatically, handling up to 5 animals per pollination cycle with a maximum density of 20 animals in the area. The Dye Bee generates dye items. All profession bees benefit from Range Upgrades in their hive, which extend their working radius.

The WannaBee and Amber System

The WannaBee is one of the most powerful bees in the mod. Instead of producing combs, it generates mob drops from whatever creature is trapped in Amber in front of its hive. The Amber Bee (found as a spawn egg in Ocean Ruins via a Brush) flies around and encases nearby mobs in Amber blocks. Place an Amber-encased mob as the WannaBee's pollination item, and it will produce that mob's loot table drops.

This system scales to endgame content. An Amber-encased Wither will produce Nether Stars. An Amber-encased Elder Guardian can produce Hearts of the Sea (especially useful with mods like Occultism). Simulated Amber Bees can trap a mob in the one-block space directly in front of the hive, making automation possible. Note that Amber-encased mobs do not work in Feeding Slabs; they must be placed as full blocks.

Genetics System

Every bee has six traits: Species, Productivity, Weather Tolerance, Behavior, Endurance, and Temper. The genetics system lets you extract these traits from one bee and apply them to another, creating optimized bees that produce more, work in any weather, and operate around the clock.

Extracting Genes

There are two methods. The safe method uses the Bee Sampler Upgrade in a hive, which has a 5% chance to extract a random gene sample each time a bee visits the hive. This is slow but non-destructive. The fast method involves squishing bees: place a Bottler block, put a Piston above it aimed downward, and place the bee between them. Activate the Piston to squish the bee into Squished Bee Material (the bee is destroyed). Run the Squished Bee Material through a Centrifuge to get Gene Vials for all six traits.

Using Genes

Gene samples have a purity percentage. Combine two identical gene samples in a crafting grid to increase purity (they stack additively up to 100%). Once you have the gene you want, craft it with a Honey Treat to create an Infused Honey Treat. Feed this treat to any bee to apply that trait. You can stack multiple genes onto a single treat. For spawn egg creation, place a Species gene + Honey Treat in a Baby Incubator with an Egg to produce a Spawn Egg for that bee type.

Optimal Traits to Target

The ideal production bee has Very High Productivity (level 3), Any Weather Tolerance (level 2), and Metaturnal Behavior (works day and night). Very High Productivity only comes naturally from Kamikaze Bees, which spawn when mobs attack you while wearing a Bee Nest Diamond Helmet (craft a Bee Nest + Diamond Helmet). Water Bees obtained from fishing already have the Any Weather trait. Metaturnal Behavior develops naturally if you leave a bee outside on a Lead for several Minecraft days.

Automation Machines

Breeding Chamber

The Breeding Chamber allows safe, automated breeding without bees escaping. Place two caged bees inside and it will produce offspring after 6000 ticks (5 minutes), consuming 50 FE/tick. It accepts Time Upgrades to speed the process. Always remove the baby bee promptly or the chamber won't produce another. If multiple offspring species are possible from the same parents, swap a cage in and out to cycle through the options.

Baby Incubator

The Incubator grows baby bees to adults instantly using 20 Honey Treats as fuel, consuming 10 FE/tick over 3600 ticks (3 minutes). It also creates Spawn Eggs when given a chicken Egg + a Species Gene-infused Honey Treat. Time Upgrades work here too. This machine is essential for scaling up bee production since baby bees cannot be squished for genes and cannot be bred until they're adults.

Honey Generator

The Honey Generator converts Honey into Forge Energy (FE) at a base rate of 60 FE/tick, storing up to 100,000 FE. It has a 10,000 mB fluid tank that accepts Honey Bottles (250 mB each), Honey Blocks (1,000 mB), or Honey Buckets (1,000 mB). It automatically pushes power to all adjacent blocks. This provides a convenient early power source for your Powered Centrifuge and Incubator, since your bees are already producing honey.

Catcher

The Catcher automatically captures bees flying over it into Bee Cages within a configurable range (expandable with Range Upgrades). Use Baby Upgrades or Not Babee Upgrades to filter for only adult or baby bees. This is invaluable for automating Kamikaze Bee collection when wearing the Bee Nest Diamond Helmet.

Endgame: Draconic Bees and Cross-Mod Integration

Productive Bees integrates deeply with other popular mods. With Draconic Evolution installed, you can breed Draconic Bees whose combs produce Draconic Dust. Nine Draconic Dust compress into a Draconic Chunk, and nine Draconic Chunks surround an Egg to create an Inactive Dragon Egg. Draconic Chunks are also required for the Productivity Upgrade and the Heated Centrifuge recipe, making Draconic Bees a critical stepping stone.

With Mystical Agriculture, you can create Prosperity Bees, Inferium Bees, and work up through Prudentium, Tertium, Imperium, Supremium, and even Awakened Supremium Bees. Each tier's spawn egg is crafted by infusing the previous tier's bee with the corresponding Essence and Block at a Mystical Agriculture Infusion Altar. With Botania, Terra Plate and Gaia Plate recipes produce specialized bees. Thermal Expansion adds Blizz, Blitz, and Basalz Bees. The mod's configurable bee system means modpack authors can add bees for virtually any resource.

Configuration

Productive Bees has extensive configuration options in its config file. The most impactful settings include timeInHive (default 4800 ticks, how long bees stay in the hive per cycle), centrifugeProcessingTime (default 300 ticks for basic, 100 for powered), and nestLocatorDistance (default 100 blocks, range 0-1000). You can also adjust numberOfBeesPerBomb (default 10, range 1-50) and the breedingChamberProcessingTime (default 6000 ticks). Upgrade values like the Time Upgrade bonus (default 20%) and Productivity multiplier (default 1.4x) are also configurable.