HONEY bees will be swarming around a derelict shop when it is transformed into a public beehive.

The Hive is opening in Leather Lane, Farringdon, with an artificial garden and a walk-in beehive for a week from next Monday.

The project has been organised by The Robin Collective working with Ideas Tap, Camden Council and the craft site Etsy and aims to highlight the decline of honey bees.

Robin Fegen, from the Robin Collective, said: “Honeybees are dying out at an alarming rate because of climate change and pesticides. People can visit The Hive to see how they can help out. Rather than focussing on the depressing statistics of the decline of honey bees, we hope to celebrate their intelligence, beauty and bond with mankind.”

The shop will be free to enter and function like a caf� where you can buy honey, artwork and food.

Visitors can study the colony of bees, try experimental foods and marvel at the garden which will be complete with flowering plants and artificial sunshine – courtesy of lighting experts Lumie.

Organisers are hoping that people may be inspired to start their own beehive after visiting The Hive.

Human bees in fancy dress will be on hand to answer questions and provide tours for members of the public.

Etsy will host free workshops and bee themed events such as ‘make your own bees wax lip-balm’.

New experimental foods for shoppers to sample include Royal Jelly Jellies and Bee Venom Cocktails as well as Well’s Waggle Dance - a honey based ale named after the performance a bee gives to alert the hive to a source of nectar.

Mr Fegen said: “Sophisticated bees in London visit flowers from roof gardens to royal parks producing some of the finest honey in the world which can be sampled and bought in The Hive. We’ll even be holding a competition to find the best.”

The Robin Collective, which was founded by Robin, Brandy Wright and Elspeth Rae, specialises in staging community pop up shop events and previous ventures have included an indoor picnic and a veterinary operating theatre.

Ideas Tap is a charity which showcases the work of young artists and Etsy is an eBay type internet site where craftspeople sell their work.

The Hive will open between 10am and 10pm everyday. For more information visit www.therobincollective.co.uk.