Urchin Beekeeping
One of the few trades urchins are known to practice is beekeeping, along with making products from the honey and wax harvested from the hives. Even in cities with limited space, urchins are able to build apiaries or just single hives on the roofs of buildings.
Maybe because they congregate and act in large groups, urchins seem to have a preternatural connection with animals that likewise assemble in large groups such as flocks, herds, packs, and swarms. Bees, who gather in hives and swarms, are included and thus urchins are naturally inclined towards beekeeping. It is said urchins can communicate with bees, not speaking to them, but in song with instruments or more typically through whistling. Whether urchins can understand bees is not conjectured.
The honey is used as a sweetener: in beverages, in baked goods, as a glaze, and they do make a mead which is the only alcoholic beverage they are known to make. Honey is known to have healing properties as well. A favorite treat of urchin children is the honey straw: a thin wax tube filled with honey. Adult urchins also carry these candies on them for quick bursts of energy when working or traveling.
Urchins claim that they can subsist and even thrive by only consuming the products of bees: honey, honeycomb, and bee pollen. It is one of the most common items left at urchin offering altars. They add to their diet mostly with seeds and nuts, as well as insects, both of which they combine into what they call ‘seedcakes’ which in addition to seeds and honey may have ground up nuts and even insect bits in them.
Bee pollen is added to many foods for extra nutrition. They sprinkle it on their food, dip or roll honey coated items in it, and add it to water or other beverages.
Urchin Waxworks
In addition to the honey, urchins make many products from the honeycomb and wax they obtain from keeping hives as well as bee pollen.
The wax is of course used to make candles but also seals (on bottles, for repair, and the official seals on documents), sculptures, and soap. They make scented candles in addition to plain ones of all shapes and sizes. On the streets of most neighborhoods you can find at least one urchin merchant selling candles, and often many competing with each other.
Perhaps most importantly, both the honey and wax are used to make medicinal products like balms, salves and ointments. These typically are meant to heal wounds or skin abrasions. Honey is also used to make drops and syrups to ease coughs, sore throats and colds. They add herbs and flowers and oils to the concoctions to increase their healing properties.
Soothing Salve
Urchin chandlers know a recipe for a salve made from the honey and wax from bees, with a secret blend of botanicals. that can soothe and even moderately heal damaged skin. Calendula is the only known ingredient besides the beeswax and honey, and urchins keep the secret recipe guarded safe among only them, though horsetail is another suspected herbal additive and from its smell some claim that onion is part of the formula. It works equally well on heat (fire and sun) as well as cold (frostbite) damage to skin as well as other elemental damage.
One usage of an urchin burn salve will heal 1 hit point if the recipient has taken damage from an attack that did acid, cold, fire, lightning or poison damage. If applied to a necrotic wound, it does not have an automatic effect, but the person it is applied to can make a Constitution saving throw vs. a DC of 12 they can benefit from the effect. The salve and its healing property can be used once every six hours or a maximum of four times per day.
