Liverpool is a major port city on the Mersey estuary with a UNESCO World Heritage waterfront, a world-famous musical heritage and a thriving urban beekeeping scene that has developed strongly since the 2010s. The Merseyside BKA covers the city, and the city's parks — Sefton Park, Prince's Park, Calderstones and the Mersey riverside — combined with the lime-avenue canopy of the older suburbs, the allotment fringe of Toxteth and Wavertree and the coastal dune and saltmarsh habitats of the Mersey shore give city bees a productive season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Georgian Quarter and Toxteth conservation areas, along the Mersey riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Speke Hall and Otterspool Prom, in the old parkland and walled garden remnants of Sefton Park and Calderstones, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Georgian and Victorian city-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
L25 7TE· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteCH62 7HW· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteL37 7BS· approx. 19 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.
