Ashby-de-la-Zouch is a Leicestershire market town at the edge of the National Forest — a medieval castle, a Georgian market place and the Ivanhoe Line railway running through a landscape of mixed farmland, newly planted National Forest woodland and the ancient parkland of Calke Abbey to the north. Bees here benefit from a rapidly improving forage base as National Forest planting matures.
Swarms settle in the castle ruins garden hedgerows, on the old lime and horse chestnut trees of the market area, in the mature garden hedges of the Georgian residential streets, and on the woodland-edge bramble and sycamore scrub of the National Forest plantations north of the town. The Calke Abbey parkland supports a well-established feral population.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DE13 0BN· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteCV11 5DN· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteB74 2YT· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape and field beans drive the arable flow. Sycamore and horse chestnut in the market towns build the mid-May crop; lime dominates June in Leicester, Loughborough and Market Harborough. Charnwood brings sweet chestnut, bracken and patches of bilberry; Bradgate and Belvoir parks add ancient lime and oak. Bramble is universal; rosebay willowherb fills ex-quarry ground around Mountsorrel. Ivy on the red-brick farmhouses and old pub gardens closes the season strongly.
More on beekeeping in LeicestershireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
