It's been nearly two years since we starting keeping bees in Hong Kong's urban environment and we're pleased to let you know that our seven beehives at our Ngau Tau Kok rooftop farm are doing great!

We've had several requests from the people to hold workshops / beekeeping classes and we think this Spring is the time to start!!! If you're interested in knowing more about Hong Kong's bees, learning urban beekeeping or even become a Hong Kong beekeeper, we've planned a 2 day, 4 hour course:

SATURDAY 14th APRIL - 1-3pm

- Introduction to Urban Beekeeping
- Introduction to bees
- Responsible beekeeping ethics
- How to start beekeeping in Hong Kong

SATURDAY 21st APRIL - 1-3pm

- Hands-on lesson
- Working with the bees
- Beehive maintenance
- Honey harvesting *

Workshop includes HK Honey Urban Beekeeping Zine, Beehive Making Manual & a jar of Ngau Tau Kok honey *
Class of 8 people. Bilingual (English and Cantonese)

Photo by Glenn Eugen Ellingsen
* subject to weather. We can always reschedule : )

Please visit our Shop to book your place

Mr. Man and his wife have a beautiful bee farm tucked away in a village in Kam Tin, Hong Kong. They have around 50 beehives next to a lake populated with herons, fish and turtles.

Mr. and Mrs. Man also grew up in Mainland China. They keep Chinese and Western bees. Mr. Man prefers Western bees and says they are "more behaved" than Chinese bees.

Mr. and Mrs. Man also taught Michael how to keep bees and harvest honey from the beehive.

From time to time, Mr. Man teaches a very thorough three-day beekeeping course at his bee farm in Kam Tin. The course is in Cantonese and classes are for four people.

If you would like to join his course please email us and we'll update you with details.

UPCYCLING CANDLE-MAKING WORKSHOP
SATURDAY 28th APRIL 2012
3 - 5 PM

On the last Saturday of every month we do a new type of candle-making workshop at Shanghai Street Studios in Yau Ma Teii.

We encourage workshop participants to visit local shops, and reclaim unique packaging that can be used to contain natural beeswax.

We hope to create very unique candles with surprising forms and scents. We made a pineapple scented candle with the tin of the pineapples on the left (a kind of homage to Takeshi Kaneshiro from Chungking Express).

The workshop includes:

- HK Honey introduction
- Mini-tour of Yau Ma Tei shops
- Making 2 upcycled natural beeswax candles
- HK Honey tea and cake

Class of 8 people maximum. Bilingual (English and Cantonese)

Please visit the Shanghai Street Studios website to book your place

Photo by Martin Cheung at Shanghai Street Studios

Our bee farm is on a 4,000 square foot rooftop farm in Ngau Tau Kok, Kwun Tong. We occassionally do private tours for different companies who want to know more about what we do and how nature can thrive in the urban environment.

We harvest fresh herbs from our rooftop to make honey tea and we also bake honey biscuits for tea time.

It's great to see people get out of office mode and enjoy our rooftop with their colleagues.

Please email us if you would like us to do a private tour.

Photo: Michael doing a presentation on Biodiversity in Hong Kong for Bloomberg Hong Kong.

Photo by Bo Pui Nar Hui

HK Honey also do private candle-making workshops for companies, shops, cafes, families, etc. Each workshop can be tailored to your needs - such as the location or candle design.

We recently done a private candle-making workshop for Whitespace in their studio. Whitespace is a design consultancy that provides creative direction and branding services. They have a beautiful studio in Sheung Wan, with white walls, a black piano, a thorough design book collection and some very nice furniture. Danielle, the creative director, wanted to treat her team to a creative team bonding activity and asked us to come and do a presentation and candle-making workshop.

We decided to do something special and design a new candle that is unique for each member of the team and is a discreet nod to one facet of Whitespace's talents - typography. We also served honey tea and baked a honey cake in the studio. Along with the melted beeswax, the studio was smelling very nice that Friday.

Please email us if you would like us to do a private workshop

Photo: Silicone candle moulds for Whitespace candle

For every candle-making workshop we bake a honey sponge cake that doesn't use sugar but instead uses our local honey as a natural and healthier sweetener.

The recipe is from Bo at Wontonmeen cafe and is delicious!! With each cake we try to source as many of the ingredients from local produces (it can be difficult!).

We serve the cake on our HK Honey trays that are made from the same wood we use to make our beehives.

Here is Bo's recipe - enjoy : )

Occassionally we do a candle-making workshop at Daydream Nation in Wanchai.

There's always a nice mix of people and we're pleased to say that a lot them stay in touch afterwards : )

The workshop includes:

- HK Honey introduction
- Making 2 Daydream Nation natural beeswax candles
- HK Honey tea and cake

Please visit the Daydream Nation website to book your place