Oadby is a leafy south Leicester suburb and the home of the University of Leicester Botanical Garden — one of the finest collections of planted trees and flowering plants in the East Midlands, giving bees a continuously curated forage landscape from March to November. Beyond the Botanical Garden, the wide residential avenues of Oadby are lined with mature lime, horse chestnut and ornamental cherry, and the open farmland starts sharply at the town's edge.
The Botanical Garden is a consistent source of swarm calls — the mature lime collection, the exotic bee-forage borders and the old glass-house gardens all support large bee populations. Collectors also attend swarms on the sycamore and lime avenues of the town, in the long-established allotment gardens, and on the paddock hedgerows of the Golf Course Lane area.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CV21 2JT· approx. 28 km
Visit websiteCV11 5DN· approx. 28 km
Visit websiteCV3 4AQ· approx. 36 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.
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