The bees inArk: Survival Ascendedmay be as big as medium-sized dogs, but these honey-makers manage to avoid much of The Island’s chaos. They keep to their hives high up in the trees, but you may just want to seek out a Queen Bee and get a hive of your own.

Taming Giant Bees can be difficult, even with proper preparation, since you’ll need to manage their hive and potential aggression, but it’s well worth it. Giant Bee Honey is one of the most useful resources in the game, and having a Queen means a renewable source of it for crafting, attracting creatures, and as food.

Player character looking at their in-game map which has three large orange stars edited onto part of it in Ark: Survival Ascended.

Where To Find Giant Bees

TheBeehives containing the Giant Bee Queenyou’re looking for areexclusively found within the Redwood Forestat the center of The Island.

You can find themattached to the sides of the giant redwood trees, generally up high on theupper middle part of the trunk, but theymight spawn on the giant fallen trees, giving you easy access.

Player character looking into their inventory which has Giant Bee Honey, Prime Meat, a Wooden Cage, and other useful items in it in Ark: Survival Ascended.

How To Prepare For Giant Bee Taming

Before you start looking for Giant Bees to tame, you’llneed to get preparedthanks to their fairly unique mechanics, and the fact thatonly the Giant Queen Bee herself can be tamed. The other beedrones will serve as obstacles, andcan’t be tamed.

Giant Queen Bees aretamed passivelylike some of the other invertebratessuch as Arthropluera and Araneo, andsmaller creatures on The Island, but sheaccepts any type of meat, Simple Kibble, and Rare Flowersas food.

Player character in chitin armor riding a Tapejara and flying them close by a Beehive on a giant redwood tree in Ark: Survival Ascended.

If youdon’t have access to Simple Kibbleor Rare Flowers, thebest taming foodsto use areRaw Mutton, Cooked Lamb Chop, orRaw Prime Meat.

If you’ve already found a Hive, you’ll need apretty big list of thingsto try andensure the tame goes as smoothlyas possible:

Player character looking up at a bee hive with a Wooden Cage and a circle of Wooden Spikes around it in Ark: Survival Ascended.

How To Locate A Hive

Most of the Hivesyou’ll find are locatedhigh up in the giant Redwood Trees, and will be attached to the sides of their trunks.

You’ll want touse a flyersuch as a Pteranodon,Tapejara,Argentavis, Pelagornis, or Rhyniognatha tofly through and check all the trees.

Player character standing with a pike in their hands and looking at a wild Giant Queen Bee in a Wooden Cage in Ark: Survival Ascended.

Be careful when checking treesfor Gives, sinceThylacoleo also hide on the trunksof Redwood Trees, andthey’ll ambush youby leaping andstunning you off your tame.

You can’t find the Queen in any hive though. GiantQueen Bees only inhabit specific hives, and you’ll be able totell the differencebetween a Queen-hive and a non-queen hive bylistening to the noisesthey make.

Player character standing in front of a newly tamed Giant Queen Bee in a Wooden Cage in Ark: Survival Ascended.

Giant Queen Beesmake a different noisein addition to the buzzing sound all hives produce, and it may takeanywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes to hear hercall, depending on when she last made it.

Once you’vefound a hive with a Queenin it, it’s time toprepare a set-up for taming her.

Player character looking into the inventory of a Beehive and putting Rare Flowers into it in Ark: Survival Ascended.

How To Prepare The Queen Bee’s Trap

First,clear out any creaturesnear the Hive,especially any Dire Bears, as they’ll be attracted to your bait, and canmess up your tame, kill you, or kill your tame, sinceyour creatures need to be set to Passive.

If theHive is on the ground, you can alsouse a Dire Bearas your tame of choice as theyhave protection from bees.

Next,set the Wooden Cagedown asclose to the Hiveas possible, and verify that thedoor is facing the Hiveas well, so the Queen can path-find into it easily.

You’ll need toplace several Giant Bee Honey downsomewhereinside the Wooden Cage, such as on thewall opposite the door, or in one of thecorners opposite the door, so you’vegot room to open the door laterwithout being too close to the Queen Bee.

You can alsouse Wooden Spikes to block off an areaaround the Hive to helpprevent any newly spawned creatures from wanderingtoo close, but leave yourself room to leave it.

How To Tame A Giant Queen Bee

With your taming area set up, and the right hive found, it’s time toget the Queen Bee out and trap herin the Wooden Cage.Apply the Bug Repellantonto yourself, then move up andbreak the Hivefrom the side.

If your tame is strong enough, it’spossible to destroy the Hive in one hit, but this requires quite a bit of Damage investmentinto them as theHive has around 5,000 HP.

Drones will fly out, but you’ll need tokill the dronesandkeep attacking until the hive’s totally brokenand the Queen Bee comes out. You may also need toapply more Giant Bee Honeyif thedrones eat it, orfly away to let the hive calm downduring the hive-breaking.

Try tospace out your attacksto give yourself a chance to see what spawns andavoid accidentally killing the Queen.

Once yousee the Queenin the horde of bees, fly away from them, giving themenough space to lose aggroand go for the bait, butnot far enough away that they escapeafter taking the bait.

Give them a moment, thenland or dismount, andcrouch-walk over to the cage. If theQueen is inside, quicklyclose the doorbehind her. If she isn’t, you’ll need todrop more Giant Bee Honey downuntil she gets inside.

If the Queen is successfully inside the cage, andisn’t aggressive, you’ll be able tocrouch and move up to herenough tofeed her the taming foodlike you would with other passive tames.

This can be done byopening the door quickly, feeding her, and closing it, or byfeeding her through the cage wallif she’s close enough to it.

When thetame succeeds, you’ll need to do something interesting:interact with the tamed Queen Bee, and she’llturn into a Beehivethat goesinto your inventory.

How To Obtain Giant Bee Honey

TamedBeehives can be placed anywhere, like a structure, and you’llneed to do soif youwant to get the honeyfrom them.

Beehivesrun on Rare Flowers, which are obtained byharvesting certain bushes and shrubsin specific areas, insideGiant Beaver Dams, and they have achance of showing up in Supply Drops level 20 and above.

ensure toput Bug Repellant onbefore you interactwith your Beehives or else they’ll sting you, andapply the highly damaging BEES! status effecton you. BEES! doesten percent of your max health,slows you down, and does additional damage over time.

Rare Flowers can beplaced in your Beehive’s inventory, and they’llneed one every hourto maintain their health, but since they’re capable ofholding up to 45 stacksof them, you may load them up andnot need to continuously check on them.

Beehives will produceone Giant Bee Honey every 45 minutesas long as they’refeeding off the Rare Flowers, and continue to do so as long as they have their fuel.

You can also obtain Giant Bee Honey byharvesting it yourself from Bee Hivesevery 15 minutes, orusing a Dire Bear to attack a ground-based hive.