Bee swarm in Rye? Help is a minute away.

Rye is a medieval Cinque Port perched on a sandstone hill above the Romney and Rother Levels — cobblestone Mermaid Street, the Ypres Tower and the Landgate Arch make it one of the best-preserved small towns in England. The surrounding levels are a mosaic of grazing marsh, reed beds and drainage dykes that give bees access to an unusual coastal-wetland forage: sea-aster and sea-lavender at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, hawthorn and blackthorn on the field-boundary hedges, and bramble dense on the shingle ridges at Camber. Lime trees line the older streets inside the town walls. The Rother estuary willows and the Brede valley woodland extend the season, and the long ivy flow on the ancient flint and sandstone walls closes a notably mild year thanks to the shelter of the hill.

The early flow starts on blackthorn and wild cherry, before hawthorn lights the hedges of the Weald. Late May to July carries the colonies on sweet chestnut around Heathfield, bramble across every common and hedge bank, and — most characteristically — heather on Ashdown Forest from late July into August, giving the dark, jelly-like Ash Down heather honey some members still cut-comb for show. Ivy closes the year on sheltered sandstone lanes and the tall old churchyards of Rye, Lewes and Battle.