How to Create an Automatic Animal Harvester in Minecraft

Build a platform out of whatever solid block type you want that is about 5 by 8 blocks big. Dig a hole two blocks deep in the middle of the front of the platform.

Encase the platform in glass two blocks high as seen above. Do not obstruct the hole in the front.

Remove two glass blocks in the center of each side of the glass frame. Place two regular pistons on either side of the hole and activate them with redstone torches.

Behind the two extended pistons build a two block wide container and fill it with water.

Connect the redstone torches together with redstone and run the redstone wiring to the front of the machine.

Connect this wire to a lever in the front.

Build a second piston water controller on the opposite side of the harvester exactly as you did with the first. Connect its redstone torches with redstone. Connect the redstone wiring of the two piston controllers together.

When you flip the lever the water will flow out and into the harvester. This will sweep up wool, hide, and meat collected from your animals and move it into the hole you placed in the front of the machine.

For the sake of ease, I have added a two gate to a section of the harvest's glass wall in order to lead sheep into the harvester.

If you wish, you may choose to replace the first level of glass with stone slabs in order to make sheering the sheep easier.

To use the harvester for sheep, lead your sheep or other animal mob into the harvester. Once you do this, you may harvest them through the gap in the wall. Unfortunately, there is no way at this time to automate the sheering process for sheep.

Once you have sheered your sheep or slain your cows and pigs, activate the machine. Watch as their wool flows to the front of the harvester with ease.

You can now flip off the switch and collect the loot the machine moves to the front.

Here I have replaced the sheep in the harvester with cows.

The main difference is that I kill the cows instead of sheering them!

Build a platform of glass about four blocks directly above your cow, pig, and sheep harvester. It should be four blocks above ground and roughly the same area as the cow, pig, and sheep harvester. Cover this top platform with fence gates.

Surround the top frame with glass as seen above.

Fill in the top frame with water and remove the glass that sits below the fence gates. You will notice that the water does not fall through the gates.

Open each of the fence gates. This is so that when chickens sit in the water, their eggs will falls through, while they themselves will not.

Place or lead your chickens into the top section of the harvester.

With your chicken harvester built above your cow, pig, and sheep harvester, the chickens eggs will fall into the bottom harvesting mechanism and all of your items will collect in the front of the lower harvester.

Here you can see chicken eggs and cow meat exiting the front of the machine.