Bee swarm collection in Cheshire

Oilseed rape is heavy on the lighter soils of Mid Cheshire; hawthorn, sycamore and willow line the field margins. The mosses — Delamere, Holcroft, Risley — contribute a patchy but useful late crop with bog-myrtle and cross-leaved heath. Lime lights the streets of Chester, Nantwich, Crewe and Knutsford. Bramble is dense along every canal corridor, and a small hill heather supplement comes from the Peckforton and Bickerton ridge. Cheshire's pastoral landscape means white clover is still an honest flow, and ivy closes the year on half-timbered village walls.

Cheshire Beekeepers' Association has branches in Chester, Crewe, Macclesfield, Warrington, Wirral and Knutsford. Collectors are used to half-timbered Cheshire farms, canal-side moorings and the large suburban gardens of the commuter belt.