North Somerset · Swarm collection

Bee swarm in Backwell? Help is a minute away.

Backwell is a large village and civil parish on the North Somerset plateau between Nailsea and Flax Bourton, its hilltop church of St Andrew visible across the Nailsea Moor below. Traditional mixed orchards survive in the village and along the Farleigh Road and Brockley Combe lanes; hawthorn is dense on Backwell Hill and the Brockley Wood margins; and the flat moor fields of Nailsea and Barrow Moor below carry oilseed rape in spring and white clover through summer.

Postcodes we cover
BS48
Where swarms appear in Backwell

Typical swarm locations

Collectors attend swarms in the orchard and garden borders of the older village properties around Church Lane and West Town Road, on the churchyard sycamores and stone walls of St Andrew's, in the hawthorn and elder scrub of Brockley Combe woodland above the village, and in the orchard lanes toward Barrow Gurney and Chelvey.

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Beekeeping associations near Backwell

Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.

  • North Somerset Beekeepers Beekeepers

    BS40 5DU· approx. 10 km

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  • Weston Super Mare Beekeepers

    BS24 7AY· approx. 13 km

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  • Bristol & District Beekeepers

    BS1 4QS· approx. 13 km

    Visit website

Association data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.

Forage in North Somerset

Oilseed rape is grown extensively on the North Somerset Levels plain between Weston, Yatton and Congresbury, producing a strong April to May flow that fills supers quickly and requires timely extraction. Hawthorn is dense on the Mendip foothills hedgerows around Churchill, Winscombe and Banwell, and the Tickenham Ridge and Kewstoke Hill carry blackthorn and gorse for the earliest spring forage. Lime trees line the Victorian esplanade gardens of Weston-super-Mare and the older residential streets of Clevedon and Portishead, giving a reliable June town-centre flow. The orchard gardens of Long Ashton, Backwell and Nailsea carry traditional apple, pear and plum blossom in May. Bramble is prolific on the Mendip scarp scrub and on the regenerating scrub of old rhyne banks; white clover on the improved moor grassland and rhyne margins carries through July. Sea-buckthorn and coastal grassland at Sand Bay, Weston Sands and Clevedon Marine Lake provide a late-summer coastal supplement. Ivy on old limestone walls and the cliff-face gardens at Clevedon and Portishead closes the forage year in October.

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Seen a swarm in Backwell?

Report it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.