Biggleswade is a market town on the River Ivel in east Bedfordshire, at the centre of the county's market-garden belt — the rich sandy soils that have made this corridor one of the most productive horticultural landscapes in England. The surrounding fields of salad crops, the Ivel valley watermeadows, the old horticultural nurseries and the mixed arable hedgerow farmland stretching towards Gamlingay and Sandy give local bees an unusually diverse springtime forage.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old market-garden orchard and nursery remnants around the town edge, in the riverside willows and alder carr of the Ivel at Holme and Jordan Mill, in the mature lime trees and sycamores of the town-centre conservation area, and in the chimney pots and eaves of the older brick-and-clay-lump cottages of the Shortmead and Lawrence Road districts.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SG6 1NX· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteCB22 4PB· approx. 28 km
Visit websiteAL7 3TT· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the dominant early flow across central Beds, supplemented by field beans. The Greensand Ridge brings sweet chestnut and bramble in the woods of Woburn, Aspley and Sandy. Lime lines the Georgian streets of Bedford and the older parts of Ampthill and Leighton Buzzard. Chalk grassland herbs — wild thyme, marjoram, knapweed — are still found on the downland fringe near Dunstable. Rosebay willowherb in the disused brickworks is a minor but characteristic flow; ivy on limestone village walls finishes the year.
More on beekeeping in BedfordshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
