Burwell is a large fen-edge village in east Cambridgeshire on the chalk spring-line between the open fenland to the north and the chalkland arable rising towards Newmarket to the south-east. The Burwell Lode — a navigable drain running to Wicken Fen — the sedge-fen remnants of the nearby Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve and the chalk grassland strip lynchets on the escarpment above the village give local bees a dual-landscape season: fen-edge willows, willowherb and purple loosestrife for summer nectar, chalk farmland with oilseed rape, sainfoin and field-margin knapweed for the spring and early summer flow.
Collectors in Burwell regularly attend swarms in the waterside willows and fen-edge scrub of Burwell Lode and the Wicken Fen perimeter dykes, in the old garden fruit trees and orchard remnants of the High Street and North Street conservation area, in the chalk downland hedgerows on the rising ground towards Swaffham Prior, and in chimney stacks and eaves of older fenland farmhouses and cottages.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CB22 4PB· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteIP29 5LU· approx. 28 km
Visit websiteCB10 1ES· approx. 29 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the dominant early flow across the Fens; field beans add to the picture in June. Hawthorn, blackthorn and cherry plum fill the farm hedges that still mark every drove road. The lime avenues of Cambridge, Ely and Huntingdon provide a concentrated urban flow, and willow, hemp agrimony and purple loosestrife along the Great Ouse and Cam sustain hives well into July. Late summer brings sainfoin on chalk field margins and a modest heather crop on Thetford Heath gravels on the county edge.
More on beekeeping in CambridgeshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
