Bringing Bees to Smales Farm: A Workplace Hive with a Sustainable Purpose
How Smales Farm is using bees to connect sustainability, biodiversity and its community.
For Smales Farm, sustainability is part of the bigger picture. Their 10-hectare North Shore precinct has been developed with a focus on sustainable places, people and shared spaces, including environmentally sustainable buildings, green spaces and native planting.
So when it came to finding a meaningful way to support biodiversity and bring sustainability to life for their team and wider community, a beehive was a natural fit.
Welcoming the bees to Smales Farm
Installing a beehive isn't just about putting a box on a rooftop or in a garden. For us, it's about creating an opportunity for people to connect with the hive and understand the important role bees play in our environment.
To welcome their new hive, the Smales Farm team gathered around the hive site for a special Beehive Welcoming Ceremony.
Together, the team got to meet their new colony, learn more about their bees and, most importantly, name their queen.
It was a fun and memorable team-building experience — and each queen bee was given her own custom plaque, creating a permanent reminder of the hive and the team who welcomed her.
Custom honey made for Smales Farm
As the hive settled in and the bees got to work, we also created custom honey labels designed to match the Smales Farm branding.
Their own honey can be shared with staff, customers, tenants and visitors, turning a jar of honey into a conversation starter around sustainability and biodiversity.
It's a small gift with a much bigger story behind it.
Rather than another generic corporate gift, recipients get something produced by bees living right at Smales Farm — along with an opportunity to learn about why pollinators and biodiversity matter.
Getting hands-on with the hive
One of the best parts of having a workplace hive is being able to experience it throughout the year.
The Smales Farm team has enjoyed regular hive visits with their beekeeper, getting suited up, having a go with the beekeeping tools and exploring the fascinating world inside the hive.
From seeing the bees at work to learning how the colony develops, every visit offers something new.
These experiences give the team a chance to step away from their usual work environment, spend time together and engage with a sustainability initiative in a genuinely hands-on way.
A hive that brings people together
For Smales Farm, the hive is more than an environmental initiative. It's a way to bring people together around something positive and tangible.
It's an opportunity to learn about bees, discover more about biodiversity and see how a small action can contribute to a healthier environment.
And with the wider Smales Farm community already centred around people, green spaces and connection, the bees have found a pretty fitting home.
“It’s been such a wonderful opportunity to learn, to engage our teams, to engage the wider community. We have spent many afternoons down at the beehives. We 100% recommend other businesses having bees. Bees Up Top takes all of the management away, the comms have been really great - really seamless… It’s just been such an enjoyable experience”
— Smales Farm Team Member
Bringing bees into your workplace
A workplace beehive can be a unique addition to your business's sustainability efforts, providing opportunities for biodiversity, employee engagement, team building and environmental education.
At Bees Up Top, we manage the hive while giving your team opportunities to get involved — from hive visits and beekeeper workshops to honey extraction and custom-branded honey.
Want to bring bees to your workplace?
Let's create a hive that's good for your team, your business and the environment.
