Fakenham is a market town on the Wensum in north Norfolk, surrounded by the rolling arable and parkland countryside of mid-Norfolk with the north Norfolk coast and its saltmarshes an easy drive to the north. The Norfolk BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the mixed arable farmland and old parkland of the Wensum and Stiffkey valleys, the lime and sweet-chestnut avenues of Holkham and Houghton estates, the north Norfolk saltmarshes and coastal grassland, and the old walled gardens of the market town — gives local bees a varied agricultural and coastal season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and Oak Street conservation areas, in the old parkland lime-avenue remnants of Holkham and Houghton Hall, along the Wensum and Stiffkey riverside willows and watermeadow margins, 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. 29 km
Visit websitePE30 5DQ· approx. 31 km
Visit websiteNR12 0SH· approx. 48 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.
