Leominster is a market town in north Herefordshire on the River Lugg, surrounded by the hop-growing country and apple orchards of the Marches. The Herefordshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the hop yards, orchard pasture and old hedged farmland of the Arrow and Lugg valleys, the limestone grassland of the Croft and Mortimer country to the north-west, and the old walled gardens of the Priory — gives local bees one of the most hop-and-orchard-rich seasons in England.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and orchard remnants of the Broad Street and Priory conservation areas, in the hop-yard hedgerows and apple orchards of the Lugg valley lanes towards Bodenham and Docklow, along the Lugg and Arrow riverside willows and watermeadow margins, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SY8 1FD· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteHR1 2NG· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteHR29PA· approx. 23 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.
