Chard is a hilltop market town on the southern edge of Somerset, close to the Dorset and Devon borders and set among the mixed farmland and cider-apple orchards of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The South Somerset BKA covers the town and the surrounding countryside, and the area's hedged pasture, ancient orchards, chalk grassland and the old lace-mill water-meadows along the Axe valley give local bees a classic south-Somerset season from cherry-plum through to late-summer ivy.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the orchard and kitchen garden remnants of the Fore Street and Holyrood Street conservation area, on the hedgerow oak and hawthorn margins of the Blackdown Hills lanes towards Combe St Nicholas and Wambrook, along the watermeadow alders and willows of the upper Axe below Chard Reservoir, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older town-centre and lace-mill properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
EX13 5RJ· approx. 11 km
Visit websiteTA13 5HD· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteTA4 1EU· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The apple orchards of Taunton Deane, Glastonbury and the Tone Valley give an early, intense flow in May; sycamore and hawthorn run behind. Lime scents the streets of Bath and Wells in June; bramble blankets every hedge. The Levels contribute a long late flow on willowherb, loosestrife and himalayan balsam along the rhynes. Mendip provides limestone grassland herbs — wild thyme, marjoram, knapweed — and the Quantocks give a small but real late heather supplement. Ivy closes the year on old orchards and stone churchyards.
More on beekeeping in SomersetReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
