Taunton is the county town of Somerset, set in the vale between the Quantocks and the Blackdown Hills with the famous cider-apple orchards of Taunton Deane stretching on all sides. The Taunton BKA is one of the oldest in Somerset, and its members work a landscape where apple blossom in May is the defining flow, followed by white clover on the vale pastures in June and the heather-capped Quantocks — visible from the town — in August.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old orchard and garden boundaries of the Vivary Park and Silk Mills areas, along the Tone watermeadow willows and alders through French Weir Park, in the hedgerow oaks and apple orchards of the farmland lanes towards Bishops Hull and Norton Fitzwarren, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the Victorian and Edwardian residential streets.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
TA4 1EU· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteTA5 2NU· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteTA13 5HD· 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.
