Bungay is an ancient town in a loop of the River Waveney, with the ruins of a Norman castle rising above the market place and the wooded river meanders creating a distinctive mixed landscape of grazing marsh, osier beds and sandy upland. The Waveney BKA serves the town. The Waveney flood-plain willows and sallow carry the earliest spring pollen; the grazing-marsh ronds and osier beds add a long wet-meadow forage sequence; hawthorn and blackthorn are dense in the old upland enclosure hedges above the valley; and the mature trees of Bungay Common and the river-loop meadows provide a sheltered, forage-rich environment well into autumn.
Collectors attend swarms in the ivy-clad castle ruins and the old garden walls of the conservation area around Earsham Street and Staithe Road, along the riverside willow and alder on the Outney Common and Bigod Castle loop, in the old orchard and cottage gardens of the outlying villages of Ditchingham and Ellingham, and in the chimney pots and old lime-pointed walls of the market-place properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NR34 8JN· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteNR8 6ND· approx. 29 km
Visit websiteNR12 0SH· approx. 39 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape dominates the early flow across the heavy East Suffolk and High Suffolk clays. Hawthorn and field maple follow on the hedgerows, giving way in June to a dependable lime flow in Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Sudbury. The Sandlings — the coastal heath strip from Ipswich up to Lowestoft — produce bell and ling heather in good seasons, and the oilseed-rape / heather combination is still the backbone of commercial Suffolk beekeeping. Coastal buckthorn and ivy carry colonies into autumn.
More on beekeeping in SuffolkReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
