Bee swarm collection in Norfolk

Spring is carried on oilseed rape — vast sheets of it — across the light Brecks soils and the heavy clays of central Norfolk. Lime and sweet chestnut provide an important June flow in the parkland of the Holkham, Sandringham and Blickling estates. Bramble is ubiquitous; heather on the Brecks sandy heaths adds a distinctive late crop. The Broads themselves bring long flows from purple loosestrife, hemp agrimony and balsam along the staithes, and the coastal sea-buckthorn at Holme and Holkham is a known autumn supplement before the ivy.

Norfolk Beekeepers' Association branches in Norwich, King's Lynn, West Norfolk, East Dereham and Great Yarmouth cover the county in depth. Commercial migratory beekeeping to oilseed rape and later to the Brecks heather is still practised, and the swarm response network has decades of coordination behind it.