Bee swarm collection in City of Plymouth

Gorse on the Dartmoor edge at Roborough Down and the Plympton Hill fringe opens the season in February and March. Blackthorn and hawthorn on the Plym and Tamar valley hedgerows follow; apple blossom in the Plympton and Tamerton Foliot orchard remnants adds to the May flow. Sycamore and lime in Central Park, the Hoe gardens and Devonport Park give a reliable June city flow. Bramble is dense on the old military estate scrub at the Efford and Plymstock fringes; willowherb on the estuary embankments carries through August. The Tamar and Tavy creek-side woodland at Warleigh carries ash, hazel and wild cherry. Coastal ivy on the Sound-facing cliff gardens and the dockyard walls closes the year.

Plymouth Beekeepers' Association (plymouthbeekeepers.org.uk) is the BBKA-affiliated local association, with an active swarm collection network across the whole city. Collectors are experienced with Barbican and Devonport historic terrace chimney stacks, Central Park tree cavities, Plympton orchard outbuildings and the Dartmoor-fringe stone walls of Tamerton Foliot and Crownhill.