Weston-super-Mare is a classic Victorian and Edwardian seaside resort on the Bristol Channel, its broad sandy bay flanked by Brean Down to the south and Worlebury Hill woodland to the north. The esplanade gardens, the mature limes of the Boulevard and the Clarence Park borders give bees a productive town-centre June flow; oilseed rape on the Locking Moor plain behind the town fills supers in late April; and Sand Bay and Worlebury Hill carry coastal grassland and bramble scrub through the summer.
Collectors attend swarms on the Victorian and Edwardian terrace eaves along Regent Street, Carlton Street and the seafront hotel rows, in the Clarence Park ornamental borders and the Bristol Road lime canopy, in the allotment gardens at Milton and Locking Road, in the coastal grassland scrub at Sand Bay and Worlebury Hill, and in the garden walls and eaves of the older residential streets at Worle and Milton.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BS24 7AY· approx. 4 km
Visit websiteBS40 5DU· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteTA9 3QZ· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
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 SomersetReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
