High Wycombe is a market town in the Wye valley at the heart of the Chiltern Hills, set in a deep chalk valley with the beechwoods and chalk grassland of the Chiltern AONB on all sides. The South Bucks BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the ancient beechwoods of the Chilterns with their bluebells and sweet woodruff, the chalk grassland of Burnham Beeches and Naphill Common, the Wye riverside willows and watermeadow margins and the old walled gardens of Wycombe Abbey — gives local bees one of the finest chalk-beechwood forage landscapes in southern England.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the High Street and Church Street conservation areas, in the ancient beechwood and scrub margins of the Chilterns above Downley and Hughenden, along the Wye riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Rye Park, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian and Edwardian town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
HP11 1BJ· approx. 0 km
Visit websiteHP9 2XG· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteHP22 5TE· approx. 18 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.
