Don’t extend BlockContainer, it’s legacy vanilla code. Simply override Block#hasTileEntity(IBlockState) and Block#createTileEntity(IBlockState)
Tickable tile entities can do whatever they want in their onUpdate method (renamed tick in 1.13). You can use TileEntity#getPos, BlockPos#offset(EnumFacing, int), AxisAlignedBB(BlockPos) and World#getEntitiesInsideAABB to find all entities up to 7 blocks away from your TE in any direction. As a general rule, don’t copy the vanilla code exactly, it’s usually not very good (vanilla operates in an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” way) and Forge usually has better ways of doing what you want. That said, vanilla is an excellent reference, but it’s not great to just copy paste vanilla code.
This likely means you followed a sub-par YouTube tutorial about how to setup your mod. Don’t use static initialisers (see http://www.minecraftforge.net/forum/topic/70095-1122-custom-tree-problems/?do=findComment&comment=339598 for an explanation), your registration can be massively simplified and clean up (see https://gist.github.com/Cadiboo/b825d62fb46538e7b7b262c5612d62aa and https://gist.github.com/Cadiboo/3f5cdb785affc069af2fa5fdf2d70358)