Bee swarm collection in Aberdeenshire

Oilseed rape on the vast arable belt around Inverurie, Turriff and Ellon is the defining early flow — Scotland's single biggest rape region. Hawthorn and sycamore carry the post-rape period; lime lights Aberdeen's granite streets in June. The heather of Royal Deeside, the Ladder Hills and the Cabrach gives one of the finest and most commercially worked heather honey flows in Britain. Bilberry and hill forage add; a short but real ivy flow on the granite villages finishes the year.

Aberdeen, Deeside and Turriff Beekeepers' branches cover the county. Commercial migratory beekeeping — rape in June, heather in August — is still a practical reality here, and collectors work farmhouses, granite cottages and rural steadings.