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4 Reasons Why Your Villagers Aren’t Breeding in Minecraft

4 Reasons Why Your Villagers Aren’t Breeding in Minecraft

Minecraft provides tons of options when it comes to customizability. Some of these enable you to build greater structures, while others can aid you in creating unique habitats.

If you want to increase your villager’s population, breeding seems the best way. However, your captured villagers might not breed as you intended them to.  

Your Villagers aren’t Breeding in Minecraft because they don’t have a bed with a 2-block clearance, they aren’t happy enough, it’s not the right time of day, and they don’t have a heart above their heads.

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If your villagers are not breeding, follow the steps below to solve this issue. There are certain cases where the villagers won’t breed, no matter what. Follow these next steps to guarantee your villagers will breed together.

Setting the Environment

This guide will mention the steps you can take to increase your chances of breeding. It is worth understanding that any change affects the villagers’ willingness. Therefore, do not try to change a lot of variables. With that said, here is what you should try:

Build a Place for The Villagers

The villager’s mood is extremely dependent on the willingness factor. Make sure they are not in an angry mood. Villagers tend to get angry whenever you destroy their beds or workstations. Therefore, give them a reason to be happy. Simply make new houses for them to stay in and let them do their stuff.

You only need to add beds (for the new baby), a workbench, and a chest, and you should be ready to go. You can make it grandiose or minimalistic, depending on your tastes. However, the size of the house will not affect the villagers. 

Keep them Stuffed

Another factor that affects the villager’s willingness is the amount of food they have in their inventories.

The player can throw food toward a villager to have them pick it up. Make sure to give them plenty, or they will refuse to breed. Becoming willing will decrease their food stack; you must refill it after the mating is over to make them willing again. 

Place the Beds Correctly

Finding what’s wrong with your bed placement can be frustrating. Therefore make sure you do it right the first time. Here is how you can place your beds correctly.

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To place the beds, you must ensure every requirement is perfectly fulfilled! There should be a lot of beds in the room if there are no beds available to facilitate a newcomer, then the villagers will not breed. 

The beds must also have around 2 blocks of clearance in between. The baby villager needs to be able to pathfind and reach the bed. Any obstructions will hinder it from claiming the bed. Ensure no object is placed above the bed as it might invalidate it.  

Keep Your Villagers Happy

The villagers have a gossip system that lets them share gossip around the village. Certain conditions can affect a villager’s mood; therefore, ensure the villagers are not in a negative mood. 

It is worth understanding that the gossip system has no direct correlation with breeding. Rather, it is a factor that can affect a villager’s mood. 

Keep Track of the Particles

Villagers go into love mode if they have enough food. A mating session consumes around 12 units of food. The player can observe the particles above a villager’s head to check these modes. Hearts indicate love mode, while angry particles and the hearts indicate insufficient beds for them to mate. 

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The particle mechanic can be extremely useful in identifying different villager traits. The villagers will also display angry particles if the population limit is met. In this scenario, you must expand the village to accommodate as many villagers as needed. 


All in all, ensure your villagers are in the perfect setup if you want to increase the population as fast as possible. An important point is that Breeding villagers do not drop any experience.

If your villagers are not breeding, try to diagnose the problem by implementing the mentioned steps. You must take good care of your villagers to create your dream village!