Minecraft wiki entry for Honey_farming, associated text: A beehive is functionally identical to a bee nest, but it is not destroyed if broken with a tool without Silk Touch (though this still causes the bees inside to exit the hive and swarm). Also, if you don't want to completely remove the original bee population, consider breeding your own group of bees from the original group to take home with you. You can lure them to follow you by holding flowers.