[MCPE-60937] Campfire smoke does not calm Bees if partially obstructed

I'm going to include some screencaps and links to mp4 video recordings of the incident in question. As I had set up a farm, breed bees, and had tried to make a simple system to collect the honey from the bees that didn't require me to constantly have smoke underneath them. Bees can be harmed by the campfire so the idea was to make it so that players can safely walk over them and the bees won't be as likely to harm themselves passing by. Normally, when bees get honey taken they will get mad at the player unless there is a campfire underneath the beehive or nest. It's the smoke that is supposed to be calming them however when you have an open trapdoor underneath the beehive the smoke travels through but the bees still get angry. Other players in other platforms have experienced this problem as well. MC-164336 and MC-164486

I'm going to include two mp4 files here. The first of which I have labeled as "Collecting honey 001" and the second of which I labeled "Collecting honey 002". In 001 you can see that the door is raised, the campfire is easily within six blocks of the hive/nest and that as soon as I collect the honey an angry bee comes out to attack even though the smoke is clearly reaching the nest. In the 002 video, I do the same thing except I completely remove the trap door and like before I collect the honey except for this time the bees do not attack. Nothing has changed except for the presence of the trap door.

Since I cannot upload the video I will provide links to them on my youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qMtn65fiPI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8MFj1kLaSM

Linked issues

is duplicated by 21

BDS-18451 THE BEES Resolved

MCPE-59972 bees still attacks players when taking honey from a hive when over a campfire. Resolved

MCPE-67833 Bees with a campfire under them still attack Resolved

MCPE-72250 Bees Agro when a trap door is use to cover a fire Resolved

MCPE-72571 Minecraft Resolved

16 more links

relates to 2

MCPE-134359 Campfire smoke behaves inconsistently through non-full blocks Open

MCPE-59224 Bees are angered when harvesting Beehives regardless of Campfires Resolved

Attachments

Screen_Recording_20240306_004903_Minecraft.mp4

Comments 19

Onedown3togo 2020-01-20T02:51:22Z

This is also occurring on xbox one. I didn't use a trapdoor i just placed the fire under the nest. When the nest was full I used sheers to get the combs to make my own hive. The combs popped out but so did three angry bees that subsequently died after stinging me. I lost the nest. Disconcerting after traveling nearly 3000 blocks to find a nest in a pre bee update world.

Christopher Liu 2020-02-12T02:02:56Z

Same, but for me on xbox, it is random when it happens.

ricstrr 2020-03-28T16:54:57Z

Same here on Windows 10 (Bedrock Dedicated Server) . I had previously used pistons and levers to switch the smoke on and off and hoped that trapdoors would be a more compact solution. Got stung and all my bees dies and now I too have to go traveling to get more bees

Skaijie 2020-11-20T15:24:25Z

Does this still occur in 1.16.100?

Robert 2020-11-20T15:39:12Z

birch trees have a 5% chance to spawn a bees nest with bees. so just grow trees for new ones.

9 more comments

Jon Peterson 2021-05-06T23:02:30Z

Considering the upcoming recipe for candles requires honeycomb, this bug is suddenly much more important to fix. Candles are a relatively expensive recipe considering this bug. It is already slow to obtain honeycomb without these issues, but with this campfire issue, it's unrealistic to be able to collect the quantities we will need without either the bees getting killed from the fire, or getting killed from stinging us. Please please please Mojang make this a priority to bring the fix to Bedrock, it's already fixed on Java!

Eugene Lee 2021-07-14T04:41:55Z

It's not fixed in Java, as my beeless house will tell you. My set up is a campfire below an empty space, two fence posts above, then the box. Smoke is able to reach the box consistently. I sheared successfully three times, never angering the bees, but the fourth time they were maddened. Smoke was still hitting the box. 1.17.1 Java.

TheTamedWolf 2021-07-18T03:15:24Z

Campfires will catch bees on fire randomly. And moving beehives with pistons causes them to get mad. I've experienced them getting mad even though there is a campfire beneath the hives. I am in 1.17.10.

Baron Samedi 2021-08-05T21:19:37Z

I can confirm that this issue is still present in beta 1.17.20.23, Android OS. Smoke that reaches the hive through an obstruction loses its stunning effect completely.

With respect to the bees being lit on fire by the campfire, I've found that this is prevented by putting the fire >4 blocks below the hive (a 1x1 fire pit works well for low hives).

Michael Beck 2022-01-20T05:46:27Z

Confirm that smoke is not calming bees when harvesting in Bedrock 1.18.2.

Players on my Realm are being attacked by bees on both obstructed (glass over the smoke, to prevent players from getting caught on fire) as well as unobstructed nests, as well as hives.

This affects both harvesting honey, as well as honeycombs. Bees are attacking on every single attempt to harvest a smoked hive or smoked nest.

Susan Anvin 2022-04-21T15:03:19Z

having this issue on 1.18.30 as well. I'm automating for the first time. Usually I place my nests/hives directly over the campfire and use blocks to prevent bees or players touching the fire. Now I've set them up over water with observers and dispensers with shears. There is a trap door over the fire so water can flow over it to the hoppers. Smoke appears beneath the nests but bees attack if sheared manually. And since the nests often get found dripping.... I have to shear manually at least once.

grngremlin 2022-05-16T14:12:56Z

Verified I see the same thing as the reporter only with carpet. On Bedrock 1.18.31.

Sef 2022-05-17T09:42:04Z

Verified on Switch with trapdoors made from oak that supposedly has “holes” in it.

Covered the campfire, tried to collect, got stung. This was an issue in previous editions as well.

lilP0ni 2023-02-12T02:50:48Z

This is still happening on v1.19.60 (on realms) smoke is working for me as long as there is nothing in between the campfire and bees. The only workaround I currently have is to cover the fire with blocks and then break them to harvest and then put them back.

Possibly relevant: Smoke appears to pass through closed trapdoors (visually) putting a solid block two spaces above it stops it from coming out of the trapdoor/disturbing the nest. One single block above the campfire still allows smoke to go through it. I originally used amethyst blocks but also tested with cobblestone and deepslate blocks.

I am also having an issue of drops from the hive/bees going through solid blocks (plan to make a separate ticket if there isn't already one) if that is at all helpful as well.

Cor-Jan 2023-05-22T08:42:09Z

Can confirm that this is still an issue for 1.19.83: Campfires with a trapdoor above them do not passify bees.

Pigly3 2023-06-14T13:18:13Z

This still works. It also works with fences.

gabisou 2024-08-01T05:24:20Z

Still is an intermittent problem in Minecraft for Windows (aka "Bedrock") v1.21.2. I'm not sure if I can capture it on video, but I'll try. However, I definitely saw a friend of mine lose many bees while trying to collect honey from bee nests with campfires placed underneath them.
It would be great to have this bug resolved, as it is impacting a major feature in an important mob in Minecraft

Brad Brook 2025-03-12T21:40:14Z

Problem still present in v1.21.62 on Xbox.

ImaHorse333 2025-06-03T16:46:13Z

Issue persists on 1.21.82