Norwich is the county city of Norfolk, a medieval cathedral city set on the Wensum in the heart of the Norfolk countryside, with more medieval churches per square mile than any other city in northern Europe. The Norfolk BKA is one of the most active in the east of England, and the city's parks — Mousehold Heath with its gorse and heather, the Wensum riverside and the walled gardens of the Cathedral Close — combined with the surrounding Broadland farmland and the city's dense allotment fringe, give local bees a varied and productive season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime trees and old walled gardens of the Cathedral Close and Elm Hill conservation areas, along the Wensum riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Whitlingham Country Park, on the gorse and heather margins of Mousehold Heath, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older medieval and Victorian city-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NR8 6ND· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteNR12 0SH· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteNR34 8JN· approx. 26 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.
