Kettering is a market town in north Northamptonshire on the Ise, surrounded by the rolling ironstone uplands of the Northamptonshire Uplands and the mixed farmland of the Welland and Nene watersheds. The Northamptonshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Ise riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland limes of Wicksteed Park, the ancient ridge-and-furrow pasture and hedgerow oaks of the Broughton and Cransley lanes and the mixed arable farmland of the East Northamptonshire plateau — gives local bees a reliable midland agricultural season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and High Street conservation areas, along the Ise riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Wicksteed Park and Burton Latimer, in the old parkland and orchard remnants of the Cransley and Broughton lanes, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian and Edwardian market-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NN3 7AX· approx. 14 km
Visit websitePE9 4HZ· approx. 36 km
Visit websiteCV21 2JT· approx. 37 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.
