Sittingbourne is a market town and railway hub in the Swale district of north Kent, sitting between the North Downs and the Thames Estuary. The orchards of the Teynham fruit belt to the east — the oldest in England, planted since the sixteenth century — give local honey bees an intense early flow on cherry and apple blossom before the oilseed rape on the downs and the bramble of the Swale marshes carry colonies through summer.
Local collectors regularly attend swarms in the orchard trees and hedgerow field maples along the Faversham Road and Teynham lanes, in the Victorian chimney stacks and older roof spaces of the town centre, in the garden apple trees and plum hedgerows of the residential streets east of the station, and in the rough scrub and goat willow along the Milton Creek shore.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
ME17 1NQ· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteME3 8EX· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteCT5 4LS· approx. 20 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.
