Holbeach is a market town in the heart of the South Holland flower-bulb and vegetable country, surrounded by the flattest arable fen in England and known for its daffodil and tulip growing. The Boston BKA covers the area. Daffodil and tulip pollen provides an unusual early spring supplement when fields are in flower; oilseed rape across the surrounding fen then dominates the April to May flow; field beans, phacelia and coriander are grown commercially nearby and add mid-summer sources; and the town gardens and their mature hawthorn, sycamore and lime provide forage through the residential season.
Collectors regularly handle swarms in the mature trees and garden hedges of the High Street conservation area, in the old glasshouse and market-garden plots on the outskirts of the town, along the dyke-bank hawthorn scrub on the drove roads east of Holbeach St Marks and Holbeach Drove, and in the brick outbuildings and packhouse roofs of the horticultural holdings on the fen edge.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PE21 6NW· approx. 19 km
Visit websitePE30 5DQ· approx. 28 km
Visit websitePE7 3BN· approx. 33 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.
