Port Chalmers School was a hive of activity Friday as staff and pupils tucked into sandwiches spread with honey they harvested themselves.
There had been a constant buzz around the school for the past year as pupils studied and cared for bees in a hive supplied by company Rent-a-Hive.
Friday, pupils were presented with 46 jars extracted from the hive, labelled with designs they had created.
Port Chalmers School principal Vicki Nicolson said the pupils had learnt a lot from the experience and it had taught them to be more respectful towards bees.
''We're an enviro school and so ... we try and think about our environment and we try and give back,'' she said.
''Bees are clever things and the kids now realise that.
''The thing that's interesting is that we've had less bee stings since we've had the hive.''
She encouraged other schools to give it a go.
Pupil Ally May Sharma said she participated in extracting the honey.
''We got it out of the hive and we scraped it off with this metal knife. It tasted like toffee for me,'' she said.
Louie McGlynn-Cole was also buzzing about the experience and said it tasted great.
''It tasted sort of sweet and like [caramel],'' he said.
The honey would be used to pay for the hire of the hive and school fundraising.
