Doncaster is a racing and railway town on the Don in the flat Vale of York lowlands, surrounded by the rich arable farmland of the South Yorkshire magnesian limestone belt and the Thorne and Hatfield Moors raised bogs to the east. The Doncaster BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Thorne and Hatfield Moors with their cross-leaved heath and bog rosemary, the Don riverside willows and watermeadow margins, the old parkland limes of Cusworth Hall and the mixed arable farmland of the limestone belt — gives local bees a distinctive moors-edge and lowland season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the Market Place and High Street conservation areas, along the Don riverside willows and watermeadow margins at Sandall Park and Kirk Sandall, on the bog heath and cotton-grass margins of Thorne and Hatfield Moors, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian racing-town and railway properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DN3 3AG· approx. 5 km
Visit websiteS60 5PA· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteS75 3PX· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Don Valley arable belt contributes oilseed rape to the early flow. Sycamore and horse chestnut fill May in Sheffield parks — Norfolk Park, Endcliffe, Graves; the lime avenues of Broomhill and Doncaster carry June. Sheffield's western edge opens onto the Dark Peak moors, with ling heather on Stanage, Burbage and Big Moor — a crop Sheffield beekeepers migrate to regularly. Rosebay willowherb is dense on former steelworks land; ivy closes a long season in the blackened-stone suburbs.
More on beekeeping in South YorkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
