Bee swarm in Banknock? Help is a minute away.

Banknock is a village on the western edge of the Falkirk council area, lying just north of the Forth and Clyde Canal at the Bonnybridge–Haggs stretch and close to the Kilsyth Hills foothills. The Forth Valley Beekeepers' Association covers the area, and the surrounding landscape — the Kilsyth Hills gorse and broom on the rising ground to the south, oilseed rape on the lower arable fields of the Bonny Water valley, hawthorn and elder on the old field boundaries, himalayan balsam along the Forth and Clyde Canal towpath to the south, and white clover on the improved grasslands — gives local bees an upland-edge season that extends into heather on the higher ground in late summer.

Oilseed rape on the Forth Carse between Larbert, Grangemouth and Airth provides the main April-May flow, one of the most productive in central Scotland. White clover on the improved Carse pastures and the amenity grasslands of the Falkirk and Larbert parks is the mid-summer backbone from June through July. Sycamore is the dominant early flow tree on road margins and hedgerows throughout the council area. The Forth and Clyde Canal and Union Canal towpaths carry himalayan balsam strongly from late July into September — one of the defining features of the Falkirk beekeeping calendar. Hawthorn on the Carron valley hedgerows and the canal embankments peaks in May; gorse and broom appear on the Kilsyth Hills fringe above Bonnybridge and on the Slamannan Plateau in the south. Heather on the Carron Valley moorland above Denny and on the Slamannan Plateau provides a modest late-season upland supplement. Ivy on older stone buildings closes the calendar in October.