Preschool age
We carry the comb frame to them, into the amphitheatre. They watch through the glass of the observation hive, from a distance the beekeeper sets.
Experience BeeCenter · Birthdays
A birthday in the garden, among live hives
The party moves into the Honey Garden: a thousand square metres behind the Silosi, 45 bee colonies and a beekeeper who walks the children through the whole day. The date, the number of children and their age are agreed by enquiry.
01What it looks like
A pallet amphitheatre, and in the middle a frame full of bees
The children sit down in the pallet amphitheatre. The beekeeper brings out a frame of comb and lets them come as close as they are comfortable with. The questions start before he is halfway through.
Around them is a garden made by clearing away concrete and rubble: tall trees, a wood-chip floor, huts painted with folk motifs and the red-and-white silo chimney above all of it.
02What age it is for
The age decides how close you get
Age is a field in the form because everything else follows from it: how close the group gets to the hives, who puts a suit on, and how much of the day is spent in the amphitheatre.
School age
The suit and the veil really go on, and the group walks up to the hives. This age asks the most, so this is where most of the answering happens.
A mixed group
When the guest list holds both the youngest and school children, the day splits in two: some stay at the glass, some go to the hives, and everyone meets again at the table.
03What the programme includes
Six parts, one at a time
The order is a frame, not a timetable. What exactly goes inside it we agree once you write the age and the number of children into the enquiry.
Arriving in the garden
The birthday child and the guests gather among the trees. Before anyone walks toward the hives, the beekeeper says what is allowed and what is not.
The glass hive
A whole colony is at work behind glass. The children stand a hand’s width from the bees, with the glass in between.
Real beekeeping gear
The suits and veils are ours, in children’s sizes. Once it is zipped up, the fear usually stops there.
The frame up close
The beekeeper lifts a frame and holds it up to the light. You can see capped honey, wax and a bee going into a cell.
The honey tasting
Honey is tasted from a wooden stick, from the hives in this garden and from the family apiary.
Time in the garden
Cake, running about and sitting on the pallets. If the date runs into the evening, the open-air cinema is arranged together with the booking.
When the birthday runs into the evening,the screen goes up among the trees.
04Before you set off
What you bring, and what is already here
A short list, so no parent packs what is already waiting in the garden.
- The cake and the candlesBring your own. Where and when it is cut, we agree with the booking.
- Food and drinkBeeFe, their bar in the garden, handles them. Arranged before the date.
- Beekeeping gearBring nothing. The suits and veils are ours.
- ShoesThe garden floor is wood chips. A trainer does better than a sandal.
- A sting allergyWrite it into the enquiry. It changes where the child stands during the visit.
- ScreensNot needed. Everything here is watched live.
05Enquiry
Tell us the date and the age of the children
We answer with the free dates and a suggested programme for that age. A date is held only once we confirm it.