Buckingham is the former county town of Buckinghamshire, set on the Great Ouse in north Buckinghamshire close to the Northamptonshire border, surrounded by the rolling farmland and old parkland of the Ouse headwater valleys. The North Bucks BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Ouse riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland limes and walled gardens of Stowe and Stowe Gardens, the mixed arable farmland of the north Bucks plateau and the ancient hedgerow-oak country of the Whittlewood Forest fringe — gives local bees a varied parkland and agricultural season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Square and Castle Street conservation areas, in the old parkland lime-avenue and walled garden remnants of Stowe Gardens, along the Ouse riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Maids Moreton and Dadford, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older market-town Georgian properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
MK9 3EP· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteHP22 5TE· approx. 27 km
Visit websiteOX20 1LP· approx. 30 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Chiltern beech hangers produce an unusual honeydew flow some years; lime, field maple and sweet chestnut are the more reliable June flows through Marlow, High Wycombe, Amersham and Chalfont. In the Vale, oilseed rape dominates the spring and field beans support early June. Bramble is dense on the commons; rosebay willowherb fills every beech-clearing on the scarp. A strong late ivy flow runs across the flint-walled villages and ancient churchyards of the scarp foot.
More on beekeeping in BuckinghamshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
