Chatteris is a small fen-island market town on the high ground between the Old and New Bedford Rivers — one of the few places in the middle Fens where the land rises enough to give a long view across the black fields. The surrounding farmland is almost entirely arable, with oilseed rape providing a dominant spring flow, field beans adding to June, and the waterside vegetation of the rivers and drains — willow, purple loosestrife, hemp agrimony and great willowherb — sustaining hives through the summer months.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the garden trees and churchyard limes of the Market Hill and High Street conservation area, along the drain-bank scrub and willow carr of the Old Bedford River and Forty Foot Drain margins, on the field-margin hedgerows of the farms towards Somersham and Mepal, and in the eaves and chimney stacks of the older brick farmhouses and cottages in the fen lanes.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE7 3BN· approx. 15 km
Visit websitePE9 4HZ· approx. 38 km
Visit websiteCB22 4PB· approx. 40 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.
