420,000 new striped friends will be humming at Copenhagen Airport

Soon, passengers will be able to sweeten their experience at Copenhagen Airport: Ten beehives have just been set up in collaboration with the City Bee Association, and the first honey products are expected to be on the shelves in the Copenhagen Airport shopping centre in about one month's time.

A bite of the capital of Denmark

Our locally produced honey gives passengers a unique opportunity to take with them a bite of Copenhagen when they travel into or out of Copenhagen Airport on holiday or leisure. On breakfast tables around the world, the honey will hopefully bring back memories of a visit to Denmark. We are also very excited about the positive social contribution the City Bee Association is making to the local community by giving homeless people an opportunity to join the labour market and feel a team spirit by looking after the bees, said Lise Ryevad, Director of Airport Sales at Copenhagen Airports A/S.

The City Bee Association has 20 bee gardens in Copenhagen and its products include gift boxes with taste samples from the various city districts whose honey varies in both colour and taste. From mid-June, the Fine Food stores in Copenhagen Airport's terminals 2 and 3 will sell honey and other products such as sweets and beer made with honey from Copenhagen Airport's own beehives as well as from the other bee gardens.

The City Bee Association will use the profit from sales of the products in its ongoing social and environmental work in Copenhagen.

Busy worker bees produce new opportunities

The beehives will be located in the south-eastern corner of the airport overlooking the Øresund well away from airport employees, flights and passengers.

In addition to the honey products from the bees, Copenhagen Airport's Environmental Department can probably use the honey in their work, i.e. as a biomarker and an indicator of biodiversity and air quality – an initiative previously seen at the airport in Munich. (For more information, click here)

Oliver Maxwell, the director of the City Bee Association emphasises that honey from urban areas is not affected by air particles:

Bees are extremely sensitive to smell. Each beehive actually has some guarding bees that reject migratory bees returning after having been in contact with environmental pollution. The many travellers at Copenhagen Airport can therefore look forward to a 100% pure natural product created by and in the city.

Facts: The City Bee Association

Copenhagen Airport's many new friends are all part of the City Bee Association. First and foremost, the Association supports bee survival, as honey bees no longer live in the wild in Denmark and are therefore dependent on humans looking after them. 

The City Bee Association works with social inclusion by involving long-term unemployed people, formerly homeless persons, asylum seekers and others in beekeeping, production, training and selling of products.

• The City Bee Association was founded in 2010 by the Englishman Oliver Maxwell
• The City Bee Association won the Danish Social Enterprise Award 2013 and an award from the Association for Beautification of the Capital in 2011, and it is recognised as one of the ten best social innovation projects in Europe. Click here to learn more.
• The City Bee Association collaborates with e.g. the Danish Red Cross and the Sundholm Activity Centre.
• Beehives are located at the Copenhagen City Hall, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Bella Center, 3F, Lundbeck and the European Environment Agency. The City Bee Association has a total of 25 bee gardens in Copenhagen, and there are differences in the taste of honey from the various city districts.
• Everyone can become a member of City Bee. The membership fee is DKK 100 per year, and you can register at the Association's website.

Learn more about the City Bee Association at www.bybi.dk

Facts: Fine Food

• Honey and other products from the City Bee Association will be available from mid-June at Copenhagen Airport's two Fine Food stores, which also offer a broad range of other Danish and international culinary specialties.
• The stores offer all the traditional Danish delicacies such as herring, salmon, liver paté, hot dog sausages, rye bread and cheeses. They also carry foreign cheeses, ham, patés and caviar.
• Other delicacies include coffees, teas, jams and marmalades, honey and chocolates as well as a range of artisan beers and wine. The stores also sell freshly made smoothies, sandwiches, soft drinks and spring water.