Better Bees
Better Bees overhauls the vanilla bee behavior, and it changes how hives hold bees, honey and breeding, with server-side settings that tune each part.
What it does
Better Bees replaces the vanilla bee AI with smarter, more reliable behavior, including shared flower searching and improved hive navigation and pathfinding. Bees can be given varied sizes, and breeding happens autonomously inside hives, so indoor breeding works without manual steps. Harvesting is incremental, and bottles consume 1 honey per fill, keeping the familiar Minecraft experience.
Each beehive or bee nest can store up to 20 bees, and stored honey capacity can also be raised up to 20 in the configuration. Hives and nests placed earlier are upgraded when they are placed or loaded, and excess honey and bees are handled by the settings.
Fabric API is required on every loader. The mod is open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only and is published for Fabric, NeoForge and Quilt, with files for 1.21.1, 1.21.4, 1.21.8, 1.21.11, 26.1.2 and 26.2. The optional companions are Create, The Bumblezone and Jade, and Jade adds tooltip support when installed.
Key features
Smarter bee AI
Bees follow more reliable behavior, with shared flower searching and improved hive navigation and pathfinding.
Expanded hives
Each beehive or bee nest can hold up to 20 bees, and stored honey capacity can be raised up to 20.
Autonomous indoor breeding
Breeding runs inside hives without the player stepping in, so bees can be raised in enclosed spaces.
Incremental harvesting
Honey is collected step by step, and each bottle takes 1 honey from the hive.
Varied bee sizes
Bees can appear in different sizes, which adds variety to the hives and their residents.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 1
Optional 2
How it compares
Bee Info is a client-side only Fabric mod for 1.21.1 – 26.1 under All rights reserved, so it only shows bee information and does not change bee behavior. Peaceful Bees is released under the MIT License across Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt for 1.21.6 – 26.3, and only the server needs it, so players join without installing anything. Better Bees needs both the server and the clients, and is open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Better Bees | Fabric, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21.1 – 26.2 | Client and server | 2026-09-23 |
| Bee Info | Fabric | 1.21.1 – 26.1 | Client-side only | 2026-04-13 |
| Peaceful Bees | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21.6 – 26.3 | Server required, client optional | 2026-09-17 |
Questions
Does Better Bees need Fabric API?
Do players need the mod, or only the server?
Which loaders and versions are supported?
In the catalog
Better Bees is one of 11,058 Mobs mods on ModsFinder, and one of 5,189 Mobs mods for Fabric. 13,894 mods support Minecraft 26.2.
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What the author says
Better Bees overhauls vanilla bee behavior while keeping the familiar Minecraft experience. Install on BOTH Server and Clients. Optional support for Create 6.0.10 on NeoForge 1.21.1.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/better-bees
- Owner
- TheCoolestPaul
- Published
- 2026-08-22
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-09-23
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15