Bee swarm in Bitton? Help is a minute away.

Bitton is a village in the Avon valley south of Mangotsfield, its Norman church of St Mary, the impressive Bitton railway station on the preserved Avon Valley Railway, and the Avon riverside path making it one of the more characterful settlements on the South Gloucestershire and Bath fringe. The old walled gardens of Bitton House, the riverside willows and alders, and the hawthorn-lined field hedgerows along the Avon valley give local bees a long and varied season. Oilseed rape on the gently rising arable fields to the east and sycamore on every lane add to the forage calendar.

Oilseed rape on the Severn Vale farmland between Thornbury, Oldbury-on-Severn and the M5 corridor gives a strong April to May flow; the flat fields around Olveston and Aust carry it particularly heavily. Hawthorn and blackthorn are dense on the Cotswold edge hedgerows above Wickwar, Rangeworthy and Iron Acton, and the Frome valley farmland east of Yate carries a reliable hawthorn flow in late April. Lime trees line the older streets of Kingswood, Staple Hill and Mangotsfield and carry a June town-centre flow. The Filton Airfield and BAE Systems perimeter scrub carries extensive bramble and rosebay willowherb, and the Frampton Cotterell and Coalpit Heath old colliery reclamation ground is dense with bramble through July and August. Sycamore is abundant along field margins and roadside hedgerows throughout the Cotswold edge; white clover on the improved grasslands of the Severn Vale closes the main flow from June to August. Ivy on the Cotswold limestone walls and the older suburban garden walls closes the year in October.