Daventry is a market town on the limestone ridge in west Northamptonshire, with the Reservoir and the rolling Northamptonshire Uplands farmland surrounding it. The Northamptonshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the limestone grassland and old hedgerow oaks of the Nene and Leam headwater valleys, the Daventry Country Park waterside willows, the old parkland limes of Borough Hill and the mixed arable farmland of the Whilton and Staverton fringe — gives local bees a classic upland-limestone season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the High Street and New Street conservation areas, along the Daventry Reservoir and Nene headwater willows and watermeadow margins at Daventry Country Park, on the limestone grassland and scrub margins of Borough Hill, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older market-town and Victorian properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CV21 2JT· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteNN3 7AX· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteCV32 4AA· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The county opens on a mix of oilseed rape and field beans across the arable belt between Kettering and Daventry. Hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple line the ironstone walls and quickset hedges. The estate woodlands — Rockingham, Salcey, Whittlewood — produce a sweet-chestnut and lime flow in June, particularly in the older planting blocks. Bramble is dense along the Nene Valley; rosebay willowherb flushes the disused quarry and railway land; and ivy in ironstone villages gives a generous late crop.
More on beekeeping in NorthamptonshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
