Ramsgate is a Royal Harbour town on the Thanet coast, its Regency terraces and chalk cliff gardens facing east across the Channel. The walled harbour gardens, the flowery clifftop walks above the east cliff, and the agricultural land of the Thanet plain immediately behind the town give local honey bees a season that runs from early sycamore through a long ivy flow on the chalk walls and coastal churchyards in autumn.
Collectors are regularly called to swarms in the cliff-top Italianate gardens and chalk wall crevices above the West Cliff, in the chimney stacks and older roof voids of the Regency streets around the Royal Crescent, in the garden escallonia and pittosporum hedges of the seafront properties, and in the mature garden trees of the residential roads above Augusta Road.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CT12 4HQ· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteCT15 4AD· approx. 19 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.
