Wheldrake is a village on the edge of the Lower Derwent Valley National Nature Reserve, south-east of York, where the Derwent floodplain is managed as traditionally cut hay meadow and winter flood meadow — some of the most botanically rich grassland in northern England. The medieval church, the village green and the surrounding hay meadows give bees a forage landscape that is genuinely rare in modern England: ancient sward with meadow cranesbill, knapweed, yellow rattle and clover in profusion from June to August.
Collectors attend swarms in the churchyard lime and yew on the village green, in the garden trees and hedgerows of the older farmhouse properties, in the hawthorn on the farm tracks towards Wheldrake Ings, and along the riverside willows on the Derwent flood meadow margin.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
YO19 5UF· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteYO8 9AN· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteLS25 6HH· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape on the Vale of York arable fields around Dunnington, Poppleton and Skelton opens the season from early April. Hawthorn is dense on the field-boundary hedgerows all around the city fringe. York city centre is defined by its lime flow in June — Museum Gardens, Dean's Park, the Knavesmire lime avenue and the Victorian residential streets of Bishopthorpe Road and Bootham all contribute. Bramble is prolific on the railway embankment and Strensall Common edges; willowherb and himalayan balsam follow on the Ouse riverside. Bell heather on Strensall Common gives a modest but genuine late-July supplement. Ivy on the City Walls, churchyard walls and older suburban gardens closes the year.
More on beekeeping in City of YorkReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
