Beeston is a large market town and urban area south-west of Nottingham on the Erewash and Trent confluence, with Beeston Rylands nature reserve and the Attenborough nature reserve immediately to the south. The Nottinghamshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Attenborough gravel-pit reed beds and willows on the Trent, the Rylands riverside watermeadow margins, the old parkland and walled garden remnants of the University of Nottingham campus limes and sweet chestnuts, and the bramble-rich hedgerows of the suburban fringe towards Chilwell and Bramcote — gives local bees one of the most ecologically diverse urban-edge seasons in the county.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime trees and old garden remnants of the High Road and Station Road conservation areas, along the Trent riverside willows and reed-bed margins at Attenborough Nature Reserve and Beeston Rylands, in the old parkland and sweet-chestnut avenues of the University of Nottingham campus, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian and Edwardian properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NG15 9GA· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteDE55 7LX· approx. 24 km
Visit websiteDE13 0BN· approx. 29 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape dominates the spring flow on the light sandy soils between Newark and Retford. Sycamore and horse chestnut carry May; lime lights the streets of Nottingham, West Bridgford, Mansfield and Worksop. Sherwood Forest gives a strong sweet-chestnut and oak-honeydew contribution in June. Rosebay willowherb is exceptionally heavy on the ex-colliery spoil heaps — a genuinely distinctive Nottinghamshire flow — and bramble fills every disused rail corridor. Ivy on old cottage walls closes a productive year.
More on beekeeping in NottinghamshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
