How to Get Honey in Minecraft (Honey Bottle)

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Use a glass bottle on a beehive or bee nest at honey level 5 (full and dripping). Place a lit campfire within 5 blocks below the nest first, or the bees will attack. Each harvest gives 1 honey bottle per bottle used.

What you need

Glass bottles (3 glass each)
Campfire
Flowers nearby to speed up pollination
Bee nest or crafted beehive

Step by step

Find a bee nest: they generate on oak and birch trees near flowers, most often in plains, sunflower plains, flower forests and meadows (meadows always have one).
Wait for honey level 5: bees leave the nest, pollinate flowers and return, raising the honey level each trip. A full nest drips honey particles.
Place a lit campfire within 5 blocks directly below the nest or hive: the smoke calms the bees so collecting doesn't anger them.
Use a glass bottle on the full nest: you get 1 honey bottle and the nest resets to empty. Without smoke the bees inside come out stinging (and die after stinging).
Automate it: a dispenser loaded with glass bottles facing the hive collects honey bottles with a redstone signal without angering bees, no campfire needed.
Uses: drink a honey bottle to restore 6 hunger and remove the Poison effect (other effects stay, unlike milk); craft 1 bottle into 3 sugar, or 4 bottles into a honey block (you get the bottles back).

Java vs Bedrock

Identical in Java and Bedrock since Buzzy Bees. Drinking takes 2 seconds (25% longer than eating) and only removes Poison, never other effects. In Bedrock, collecting honey with a bottle unlocks the Bee our guest achievement; Java has the equivalent advancement.

Versions: Honey bottles were added in Java 1.15 (Buzzy Bees, December 2019) and Bedrock 1.14.0. Honey blocks and the 4-bottle recipe arrived in the same update cycle.

Frequently asked questions

How do you collect honey without getting stung?

Place a lit campfire within 5 blocks below the nest or hive so the smoke calms the bees, then use a glass bottle or shears on it. A dispenser with bottles also works and never angers bees.

What is the difference between a honey bottle and honeycomb?

A glass bottle on a full nest gives a honey bottle (food that cures poison, crafts sugar and honey blocks). Shears on a full nest give 3 honeycomb, used to craft beehives, candles and waxed copper.

How do you know when a beehive is full?

At honey level 5 the texture shows honey overflowing and the nest drips honey particles onto the ground below.

Can you farm honey automatically?

Yes: face a dispenser filled with glass bottles at a beehive and trigger it with redstone (an observer watching the hive's honey level works). The bottles fill and stay inside the dispenser.