Redstone Chibi Builds: Wool farm

Introducing redstone to your farming can open a wide variety of opportunities. Freeing up a lot of your time as a player. Automatic farming isn't a new concept to Minecraft. However, guides to using redstone will always be useful. Today, I’ll be starting this new series of redstone build guides with a simple and helpful machine, an automatic wool farm.

Building the automatic wool farm

While I am building this in creative mode, I want to make sure that this is an achievable build for anyone. Someone in survival mode isn’t going to be able to use spawn eggs. However, sheep can be lured into a pen using a lead or holding wheat in your hand.

In order to build the automatic wool farm, you’re going to need the following.

Dirt, cobblestone, fences, a gate, hoppers, a chest, a dispenser, a light pressure plate, sheers, and torches.

Start off your build with a cobblestone wall. You’ll need the back to be 10 blocks across with one block on either side placed ahead of it. Making the enclosure 12 blocks wide. Build the wall up to at least 3 blocks tall. Leave one space empty in the second row of your wall to make space for the dispenser.

Because of how the wool bounces off of the sheep when it’s sheered, you’ll need a designated space to cover with hoppers. While it will never collect 100% of the wool sheered, having a three-by-three square of hoppers is ideal for the enclosure.

In order for this to work, place your chest outside of the dimensions of the enclosure. Crouch behind or beside the chest to connect a hopper to it. continue crouching as you fill in the three-by-three space with hoppers. Instead of placing them on the ground blocks next to one another, crouching while placing at the other hoppers will connect them to one another. Before surrounding the 3X3 space with dirt, look at the small underside of the hoppers. None of them should be pointing straight down.

After all of your hoppers are in place, crouch and place one light pressure plate on the hopper placed at the middle against the wall. This should be in front of the space in the wall. Place the dispenser in said space so the pressure place activates the dispenser when stepped on.

Fill said dispenser with sheers. While you can just place one in and call it a day, you’ll need to replace that sheer more often rather than the machine moving to the next available sheer.

Just to clarify why it’s a good idea to put more than one sheer inside the machine. The dispenser will use a different sheer each time a sheep steps on the plate. This disperses the damage amongst the different sheers and extends their lifespan in the machine. If this is done in a dropper instead of a dispenser, a sheer will pop out of the machine every time a sheep steps on the plate.

With everything in its proper place, it’s time to finish the enclosure. Take any type of wood fence and go down 9 blocks. Making the sides a total of 10 blocks. Connect it all with more fencing across. This makes the encloser a 10X12 space. Because of how the machine is built, the fencing will have to be 2 blocks tall. Place the gate wherever you see fit along the fence and add torches to prevent any monster spawning issues. After it is all set up, it’s time to bring in the sheep.

These fluffy rectangles will come running at the sight of wheat in your hand. It’s a great way to bring in more than one sheep at a time. If you want another way to bring sheep into the enclosure, using a lead works as well.

How this all works and maintenance

The sheep will do most of the work for you. They explore the enclosure, jump around in the elevated area, and step on the light pressure plate to be sheered. Afterwards, they’ll typically walk away, munch on some grass, then start the cycle all over again. The wool bounces off the sheep, goes into any of the hoppers under them, and travels into the chest. All without you lifting a finger!

However, there are some things to keep in mind while using this machine. Not every wool block is going to make it into a hopper. Sometimes the wool will shoot too far and float over grass. Others will drop right on the pressure plate. Keeping the plate pushed down until it fades away or lumps up with other blocks on their way to a hopper.

While the sheep are sheering themselves, some might get a little suborn and stay on the plate. This prevents anyone else from sheering, even if they’re pushed off of it by their peers. As long as the plate never pops back up, it won’t be set to sheer. They typically work it out by themselves, so there’s no need to really intervene. You’ll never really need inside, unless something else is built along the wall and it’s time to replace the sheers. Going in to collect the stray wool is optional. You’ll be getting plenty of wool regardless.

Whenever you’re ready, just walk up to the chest and collect the wool. Even if the chest is completely full, the hoppers can store any overflow and push it all back into the chest when there is an available spot.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I’ll hope to see you in the next addition to this series.