Whittlesey is a fen market town east of Peterborough, set on a low clay island between the King's Dyke and the Nene Washes — the broad floodplain that stretches east towards the Wash and supports one of the most important wetland reserves in Britain. The Nene Washes in spring are alive with willow blossom and water-meadow flowers; oilseed rape on the surrounding peat fields drives the main honey flow; and the extensive reed and sedge beds of Flag Fen and the Holme Fen NNR add a distinctive late-summer supplement of bramble, purple loosestrife and hemp agrimony.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature garden trees and churchyard limes of the Market Place and Church Street conservation area, along the King's Dyke and Nene Washes drain-bank scrub and willow carr, on the Holme Fen and Flag Fen wetland margins towards Peterborough, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older brick and tile cottages of the fen lanes north of the town.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE7 3BN· approx. 7 km
Visit websitePE9 4HZ· approx. 27 km
Visit websitePE30 5DQ· approx. 41 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.
