Selby is a market town on the River Ouse in the Vale of York, dominated by its magnificent Norman abbey and surrounded by some of the richest agricultural lowland in England. The Selby Beekeepers Association and the York and District BKA both cover the town, and the flat landscape around it — the riverside willows and osier beds of the Ouse and Derwent floodplain, the oilseed rape and white clover of the Selby coalfield farmland, the lime and sycamore of the abbey precinct and market place, and the hedgerow hawthorn of the old enclosure fields at Barlby and Brayton — gives local bees a long, productive lowland season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the abbey churchyard limes and the older property roofs and chimney stacks around the Gowthorpe and Micklegate conservation area, along the Ouse riverside willow and hawthorn hedges at Barlby and Burn, in the garden lime and fruit trees of the Woodville Terrace and James Street residential streets, and on the bramble and rough watermeadow margins of the Selby Canal and Ouse floodplain.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
YO8 9AN· approx. 1 km
Visit websiteLS25 6HH· approx. 8 km
Visit websiteYO19 5UF· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Vale opens on oilseed rape, hawthorn and sycamore; the Dales add hedgerow bramble and lime around Ripon, Harrogate and Skipton; but North Yorkshire is defined by its heather. The North York Moors and the eastern Dales give long, reliable ling flows from late July into September — still commercially worked, still producing some of the finest heather honey in the UK. Bilberry on high pasture adds a quiet early-summer supplement, and rosebay willowherb flushes every managed forestry clearing.
More on beekeeping in North YorkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
