Bromyard is a small market town on the Frome in the hop-growing heartland of east Herefordshire, with the Bromyard Downs rising above it and the old orchard country of the Frome valley extending in every direction. The Herefordshire BKA covers the town, and the combination of hop yards, perry-pear orchards, old hedged pasture, the limestone grassland of the Bromyard Downs and the riverside willows of the Frome and its tributaries gives local bees one of the richest early-summer forage landscapes in the Marches.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and orchard remnants of the Broad Street and Tower Hill conservation areas, in the hop-yard hedgerows and old orchards of the Tedstone Wafre and Saltmarshe lanes, on the limestone grassland and scrub of Bromyard Downs, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older black-and-white market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
WR6 6JT· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteWR1 1AA· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteHR1 2NG· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The season opens on tens of thousands of tonnes of orchard blossom — cider apple, culinary apple and traditional perry pear — across the Leominster and Hereford belt. Hawthorn on deep double-hedges follows; hop gardens provide a quieter supplementary forage. Lime and sweet chestnut dot the market towns. The Black Mountain foothills add bilberry, heather and gorse to hives on the county edge, and bramble is dense throughout. A long, strong ivy flow on red-sandstone churches and orchard windbreaks carries the year out.
More on beekeeping in HerefordshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
