Dereham is a market town in mid-Norfolk, at the geographical centre of the county and set among the rolling mixed farmland and old parkland of the upper Wensum catchment. The Norfolk BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the mixed arable and grass farmland, the old parkland remnants at Bylaugh and Hoe, the upper Wensum riverside willows and the ancient hedgerow-oak country of the mid-Norfolk lanes towards Gressenhall — gives local bees a typical mid-Norfolk agricultural season from early rape to late ivy.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and Norwich Street conservation areas, along the upper Wensum riverside willows and watermeadow margins towards Beetley and Worthing, in the old parkland remnants of Bylaugh Hall and Gressenhall Farm, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian and Edwardian market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NR8 6ND· approx. 18 km
Visit websitePE30 5DQ· approx. 37 km
Visit websiteNR12 0SH· approx. 44 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
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.
More on beekeeping in NorfolkReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
