Bourne is a market town on the fen edge in south Lincolnshire, where the low limestone country of the Kesteven Edge gives way to the flat market-garden Fens towards Spalding. The old Augustinian priory church and the red brick market place are at the heart of a town whose bee forage is defined by the enormous oilseed rape and field vegetable fields of the adjacent Fens, the hawthorn-thick hedgerows of the limestone fringe, the River Glen watermeadows to the south and the old garden remnants of the town's Georgian streets. Lincolnshire BKA covers the area, with collectors experienced in both fen farm-building swarms and town-centre chimney pots.
Collectors attend swarms along the fen-edge hawthorn hedgerows and field margins at Thurlby and Deeping St Nicholas, in the lime trees and garden eaves of the market place and North Street conservation area, along the River Glen watermeadow willows at Lound and Twenty, and in the chimney stacks and roof spaces of the older market-town terraces and red brick cottages.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE9 4HZ· approx. 11 km
Visit websiteNG34 7TW· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteNG318JS· approx. 27 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the defining early Lincolnshire flow, enormous in scale across the Fens and Wolds. Field beans, hawthorn and blackthorn carry the hedgerows. Lime and sweet chestnut line the Georgian streets of Lincoln, Stamford and Boston. Bramble is universal, and rosebay willowherb flushes disused airfields and dismantled rail corridors. The Lincolnshire Wolds, though not high, carry sainfoin and chalk grassland herbs. Coastal buckthorn at Gibraltar Point and ivy in the Wolds villages finish a long year.
More on beekeeping in LincolnshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
