Southport is a Victorian seaside resort town on the Lancashire coast, with a long pier, sandy beaches and the large coastal dune system of the Sefton Coast stretching both north and south. The Merseyside BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the nationally important dune grassland and dune slack habitats of the Sefton Coast (one of the best sites for bee diversity in north-west England), the Ribble estuary saltmarsh, the mixed agricultural land of south Fylde and the old walled gardens of the Victorian resort parks — gives local bees a distinctive and species-rich coastal season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Lord Street and Promenade conservation areas, on the coastal dune grassland and dune slack habitats of Ainsdale Sands and Birkdale Green Beach, along the Crossens and Martin Mere riverside willows and reed-bed margins, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian resort and boarding-house properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
L37 7BS· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteFY6 7ST· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteWA11 8RG· approx. 23 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.
