Ashford is a rapidly growing Kent town on the edge of the Romney Marsh and the Stour valley, with the Kent Downs AONB to the north and the ancient market-garden country of the Great Stour to the south. The Ashford BKA covers the town and the surrounding Weald and Marsh districts, and its collectors are familiar with the full range of Kent habitat — from commercial orchard to traditional walled kitchen garden and ancient churchyard lime.
Local collectors are regularly called to swarms in the garden hedges and orchard boundaries of the Kennington and Willesborough suburbs, in the old boundary elms and oaks of the farmland lanes towards Boughton Aluph and Chilham, along the sallow and willowherb margins of the Great Stour below the town, and in the roof voids of the older brick and tile-hung properties in the town centre.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
TN26 2PE· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteME17 1NQ· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteCT4 5DY· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Few places open as explosively as Kent. Cherry, apple, pear and plum in the orchards of Faversham, Tenterden and the Medway bring an intense early flow, followed closely by oilseed rape on the North Downs dip slopes. Lime and sweet chestnut carry hives through June, particularly in the coppiced woods of the Weald. Late summer is often dominated by fireweed on the chalk pits and disturbed ground, with a strong and valuable ivy flow across the coastal plain from Deal to Whitstable. Hops, though decorative for bees, add to the mosaic.
More on beekeeping in KentReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
