Discover the wonderful virtues of bees at BEE AMAZED Garden where “Beezy Professor” John Chong has set up the first rooftop apiary in a school. BEE AMAZED Garden, previous located at Lorong Chencharu, is now at the rooftop of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) where a experiential farm sits.
The ambassador and leader of the bee community at BEE AMAZED Garden is John Chong, a former school leader, now a multi-hyphenate as a beekeeper, life coach, honorary fellow of SUSS.
Getting to know John, Founder of BEE AMAZED Garden
John dedicated 37 years of his life as an educator with the Ministry of Education (MOE). Following an illustrious teaching career, John made a big jump to becoming a beekeeper, and started BEE AMAZED Garden on 1 December 2017.
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BEE AMAZED Garden marries John’s teaching experience, and his love and passion for bees which he emphasises “are not here for honey production, but for education”.
“We have so much we can learn from bees – they’re hardworking, methodical, and innovators at heart. Just look at how they’re able to create honeycombs from nothing at all! At BEE AMAZED Garden, I remind visitors to celebrate life’s little successes and take things one step at a time. With our two hands, we will be able to achieve great things, just like bees.”
When we visited him recently, BEE AMAZED Garden had moved to the buzz of a university, John still has the same passion for bees and armed with a vision to transform lives to be courageous, brave, strong and resilient. He also dreams of a bee-friendly Singapore!
In addition, John has also expanded his vision to spread the entrepreneurial bug to young and old, just as he did with his beekeeping journey.
Learning from the Bees
As part of the SUSS family, he wants to give courage to all to learn from the bees and pursue their dreams.
He will be starting a “BEE Entrepreneurial fund” to fund startups that are of value to society.
John has definitely spread the love for bees to many by educating others about oft-overlooked insect.
He shared that the fear of bees seems to be dissipating as more learn about them. For instance, his clients are keeping bees in their homes, instead of relocating them. There is a condominium that has even built homes just for the bees!
If you’re wondering how people can safely co-exist with bees, visit BEE AMAZED Garden to learn more.
Visiting BEE AMAZED Garden as a Family
Did you know all worker bees are females? And all the bees at BEE AMAZED Garden are native to Singapore and mostly rescues? And did you know there are over 100 species of bees found in Singapore? You may discover these facts and more on a visit to BEE AMAZED Garden.
Families can choose to go on the BEE One Happy Family workshop that lasts a total of three hours, in which an educational workshop will be conducted followed by a personal encounter with bees plus honey tasting.
John also conducts corporate workshops and is able to conduct events in larger capacities thanks to SUSS’s partnership.
Workshops are conducted in a comfortable, air-conditioned seminar room while the tour of the apiary is sheltered.
Our first-hand encounter with the buzzing community was a curious yet cautious one. My 9 year old was definitely feeling the jitters and afraid of getting stung. After John’s calm and patient explanation about the bees, their abilities and hardworking demeanour, our curiosity was definitely piqued to want to learn even more and see them up close!
Who knew that bee encounters were possible in an urban landscape right atop a building?
Visit BEE AMAZED Garden to Truly Bee-lieve
Sign up for workshops at BEE AMAZED Garden and contact the team for visits and corporate workshops.
You may also enjoy watching the video interview below that we did with John in 2019.
BEE AMAZED Garden
Where: 463 Clementi Road Singapore 599494, University of Social Sciences
Website
Just beside BEE AMAZED Garden is the Far East Flora HQ.
If you are looking for fun things to do during the holidays, you may also be interested in our round up of November-December holiday camps.
