Littleport is a fenland market town on the Great Ouse six miles north of Ely, historically notable for the Littleport Riots of 1816 and today a quiet agricultural centre surrounded by the deep black-peat fen that grows some of the most productive arable land in Britain. The season is sharply spring-weighted: oilseed rape on the flat fen fields produces a dense early flow from late April, followed by field beans and phacelia; the Great Ouse riverside willows, the dyke-side margins of willowherb, purple loosestrife and water mint, and the elder on the fen-edge field boundaries carry the bees through to autumn ivy on old brick walls.
Collectors in Littleport regularly attend swarms in the riverside willows and bankside vegetation of the Great Ouse at Littleport Bridge, in the elder and hawthorn scrub of the fen-bank field boundaries towards Burnt Fen, in the older garden fruit trees and privet hedges of the Station Road and Main Street conservation areas, and in chimney stacks and eaves of the older brick fenland town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE30 5DQ· approx. 33 km
Visit websitePE7 3BN· approx. 37 km
Visit websiteIP29 5LU· approx. 39 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.
