The Mauna Kea Resort on Hawaii Island has gotten into the bee business. The property has introduced apiaries to both the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel and Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.
Now, guests and others can enjoy fresh honey and other products made by the resort's resident bees.
The very first harvest, taken from the Hapuna hives, yielded six gallons of honey. The more productive system at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel provided 45 pounds of honey when it was recently harvested.
The hives at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel are of the traditional variety and produce both honey and honeycombs for consumption. The system at Mauna Kea is called a "flow" set-up and produces honey only but with less labor than a traditional hive. Most of the honey is produced using the nectar from Kiawe tree blossoms, which are readily found on Mauna Kea Resort's 1,800 acres.
"We're excited to bring beekeeping to the resort and offer local Kohala Coast honey to our guests," said Craig Anderson, vice president of operations at Mauna Kea Resort. "We take pride in doing our part for the local community and environment we care so deeply for. This is the perfect project for us to be involved with and also allows us to bring distinct new culinary items to our guests."
The culinary teams at the properties were some of the first people to get the chance to use and experiment with the honey. At Hapuna's Coast Grille the sweet stuff is incorporated into the Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the Duroc Pork Ribs barbecue sauce and salad dressings. Mauna Kea's Manta Restaurant is blending the honey into a new signature biscotti, well suited for dipping in a morning cup of coffee. Also, Copper Bar has incorporated the honey into the dough for its signature flatbreads. Not to be left out, both properties' teams are mixing up new cocktail recipes utilizing the local honey.
In addition to making a sweet treat for the resort and its guests, the new apiaries contribute to sustainable development in the Aloha State. Introducing more honey bees to the region helps boosts biodiversity through the increased pollination of native flowers.
More dishes using the honey and honeycomb are in the works, and visitors can also purchase bottles of Mauna Kea Resort Honey to take home. The apiary project at Mauna Kea Resort was established with the help of the apiary branch of the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture and Michael Domeier of the Rare Hawaiian Honey Co.
The Mauna Kea Resort joins a growing trend of hotels installing their own apiaries and honey production systems. Fairmont Hotels started a pilot program in 2008 and now features 40 apiaries on properties located across the world. The Hotel Council of San Francisco has also gotten behind the concept and championed a program in spring 2016 to get more city hotels to install rooftop apiaries. At least eight San Francisco hotels now manage their own apiaries, including the Clift Hotel, Holiday Inn and Express Fisherman's Wharf, Marriott Fisherman's Wharf, Omni San Francisco, W San Francisco and Hotel Zetta.