Colwall is a village on the west slope of the Malvern Hills in south-east Herefordshire, with a railway station on the Great Malvern to Ledbury line and the limestone grassland and oak woodland of the Malvern Hills rising immediately above. The Herefordshire BKA covers the village, and the surrounding landscape — the calcareous grassland and hawthorn scrub of the Malvern Hills above Colwall Stone, the old apple and perry-pear orchards of the Colwall and Mathon valley, the Cradley Brook and Leadon riverside willows and watermeadow margins, and the mixed woodland and bramble of the Oyster Hill and Raggedstone Hill slopes — gives local bees one of the most botanically rich Marches hillside seasons in the county.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and orchard remnants of the Station Road and Walwyn Road conservation areas, on the limestone grassland and hawthorn scrub of the Malvern Hills above Colwall Stone and Evendine, in the old apple and perry orchards of the Mathon and Cradley lanes, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian hillside-village properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
GL18 1BD· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteWR1 1AA· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteHR1 2NG· approx. 24 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.
