North Somerset · Swarm collection

Bee swarm in Churchill? Help is a minute away.

Churchill is a Mendip-edge village at the foot of Dolebury Warren hillfort, where the limestone plateau of the Mendips drops steeply to the North Somerset Levels plain below Winscombe and Banwell. The churchyard sycamores and the hawthorn on the Dolebury Warren slopes are prominent local forage; the hillfort earthwork scrub and the limestone grassland of Dinghurst Hill carry wild thyme and bird's-foot trefoil from June; and the Rickford stream valley below the village carries willow, alder and meadow wildflowers toward the Langford area.

Postcodes we cover
BS25
Where swarms appear in Churchill

Typical swarm locations

Collectors attend swarms on the church eaves and stone garden walls of the older properties along Skinners Lane and Dinghurst Road, in the hawthorn and gorse scrub on the Dolebury Warren slopes and the Dinghurst Hill limestone grassland, in the orchard and kitchen gardens of the Langford Lane and Cox's Green hamlet, and in the Rickford stream valley alder and willow scrub below the village.

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Beekeeping associations near Churchill

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

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.

More on beekeeping in North Somerset
Nearby towns

Swarm help in neighbouring towns

Seen a swarm in Churchill?

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