About Realistic Bees
From Modrinth🐝 Tiny bees, or big! Bigger group spawns, increased hive space, stinger functionality and more.
Realistic Bees is a mod which attempts to make bee behaviour more realistic without adding new items or objects to the game. Bees are 25% of their normal size. To make bees a little less uncommon, the mod also adds a config value (by default 9) which defines the extra amount of bees that spawn after each natural bee spawn. The bee hive can also hold more bees than Minecraft's default, changed from 3 to 20.
Hives can also fill themselves with new bees. When enabled in the config, a hive that is full of honey and still has space uses it up to release a baby bee. Breeding with flowers still works as well.
More bees means a hive fills up with honey a lot faster, so it's possible to require more nectar per honey level. Bees can also be made immune to campfire damage.
On 1.21.1 and newer versions, it is possible to use this mod server-side only. Players without the mod installed will still see the smaller bees.
It also works the other way around. With 'clientSideBeeSizeFallback' enabled in the config, you'll see the smaller bees on servers that don't have the mod installed. Only the server is able to change the hitbox though, so in that case it stays at the vanilla size.
<img src="https://cdn.serilum.com/description/badges/dependencies/includes/rpg-bundle.svg" alt="Included in Serilum's RPG Bundle" width="334" height="49">
<img src="https://cdn.serilum.com/description/badges/environment/both.svg" alt="Environment: Client & Server" width="293" height="49">
All available config options:
Show Spoiler
beeSizeModifier default 0.25, min 0.01, max 5.0
This value determines the size of a bee. By default 0.25, which means they are 1/4th of their vanilla size. Set to 1.0 to disable the different bee size feature.
clientSideBeeSizeFallback default false
When enabled, bees on a server without the mod are made smaller on your screen only, using 'beeSizeModifier'. Their hitbox stays vanilla size there. Servers with the mod and singleplayer are unaffected, they change the actual bee size.
extraBeeSpawnsPerBee default 9, min 0, max 50
In order to make bees a little more common. Whenever a bee naturally spawns, the mod spawns an additional 'extraBeeSpawnsPerBee' bees.
beeHiveBeeSpace default 20, min 0, max 50
How many bees should be able to enter the hive in total. Minecraft's default is 3, but bees are a lot smaller so there should be more space.
preventBeeSuffocationDamage default true
The smaller (baby) bees can sometimes do something unexpected with their AI and get suffocation damage. Preventing this damage fixes them disappearing.
preventBeeCampfireDamage default false
Smaller bees fly closer to a campfire placed below their hive and can get burned by it. When enabled, bees take no damage from campfires.
nectarDeliveriesPerHoneyLevel default 1, min 1, max 20
How many nectar deliveries it takes on average to raise a hive's honey level by one. Minecraft's default is 1, but with more bees per hive the honey fills up a lot faster.
hivesRepopulateFromFullHoney default false
When enabled, a hive that fills up with honey and still has space uses up the honey to release a new baby bee.
Tiny bees! --or bigger. Depending on the beeSizeModifier config:
Highlights
From source dataGame versions
Supports 29 Minecraft versions, the newest being 26.3.
Loaders
Runs on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt.
Footprint
Rated a light load on a server.
Realistic Bees on Nxeon
From our catalogue- One-click install
- Supported on Nxeon Minecraft servers. We download it from Modrinth, place it, and restart the server.
- Server side
- Required on the server
- Server type needed
- Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt
- Server load
- light
- Smallest plan we suggest
- Minecraft — 2 GB (2 GB RAM). This follows our own load rating above, not a benchmark.
- Latest build
- 26.3.0-5.1-fabric+forge+neo, released 2026-11-01
Game versions by loader
| Loader | Game versions | Newest |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric | 1.20.1 to 26.3 (8 versions) | 26.3 |
| Forge | 1.20.1 to 26.3 (8 versions) | 26.3 |
| NeoForge | 1.20.1 to 26.3 (8 versions) | 26.3 |
| Quilt | 1.20.1 to 26.3 (8 versions) | 26.3 |
From 17 recorded builds of Realistic Bees.
Recent builds
| Build | Released | Game versions | Loaders |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26.3.0-5.1-fabric+forge+neo | 2026-11-01 | 26.3 | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt |
| 26.1.2-5.1-fabric+forge+neo | 2026-11-01 | 26.1.2 | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt |
| 1.21.1-5.1-fabric+forge+neo | 2026-11-01 | 1.21 to 1.21.1 (2 versions) | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt |
| 26.3.0-5.0-fabric+forge+neo | 2026-10-31 | 26.3 | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt |
| 26.1.2-5.0-fabric+forge+neo | 2026-10-31 | 26.1.2 | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt |
| 1.21.1-5.0-fabric+forge+neo | 2026-10-31 | 1.21 to 1.21.1 (2 versions) | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt |
Dependencies
- Required: modrinth project e0M1UDsY (modrinth, not in our catalogue)
Declared by the newest build that lists any. Required ones are installed with it on one-click installs.
Run Realistic Bees on a Minecraft server
Pick a server or deploy a new one above; it is installed in one click.
What kind of mod it is
From the catalogGameplay & overhauls
New mechanics, content and overhauls that change how the game plays.
Runs on your server
From source side supportModrinth lists Realistic Bees as required on the server. Check its Modrinth page to see whether players need it too.
Compatibility
- Game
- Minecraft
- Loaders
- FabricForgeNeoForgeQuilt
- Runs on
- Serverrequired on the server
- Game versions
- 26.3 and 28 earlier
Verified at the source
- ✓ModrinthOfficial listing, checked 2026-11-02Open ↗
- ✓AuthorSerilum, as published on Modrinth
- ✓LicenseLicenseRef-All-Rights-ReservedFree
