Birkenhead is a former shipbuilding and ferry town on the Wirral side of the Mersey, with Birkenhead Park — the world's first municipal park, and inspiration for Central Park in New York — at its heart. The Merseyside BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the parkland limes and old walled gardens of Birkenhead Park, the Mersey riverside willows and waterside margins, the coastal dune and saltmarsh habitats of the Dee estuary and the mixed farmland and country parks of the Wirral fringe — gives local bees a varied urban and coastal season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Hamilton Square and Flaybrick conservation areas, along the Mersey and Fender riverside willows and waterside margins, in the old parkland and walled garden remnants of Birkenhead Park, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian and Edwardian town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CH62 7HW· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteL25 7TE· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteL37 7BS· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Sefton Coast sand dunes contribute an unusual assortment of forage — sea holly, restharrow, viper's bugloss, wild thyme — feeding urban bees along the coast. Horse chestnut and sycamore in Sefton Park, Calderstones and Birkenhead Park give the early flow; the lime avenues of south Liverpool and Wallasey carry the main June flow. Bramble blankets the Mersey Forest plantings; rosebay willowherb flushes Everton and Kirkby brownfield. A late coastal sea-buckthorn crop at Formby and Crosby is a known supplementary flow before the ivy closes the year.
More on beekeeping in MerseysideReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
