Lowestoft is the most easterly town in England, a fishing port on the Suffolk coast close to the Norfolk border with the Broads and the Waveney valley immediately inland. The Suffolk BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Broadland reed-beds and alder carrs of the Waveney and Bure, the coastal dune grassland and sea-buckthorn scrub between Lowestoft and Kessingland, the grazing marsh of the Oulton Broad margins and the mixed arable farmland of the east Suffolk plateau — gives local bees a distinctive coastal and Broadland season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden remnants and lime trees of the High Street and London Road North conservation areas, along the Oulton Broad and Waveney riverside willows and reed-bed margins at Carlton Colville, on the coastal dune grassland and sea-buckthorn margins at Pakefield, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older Victorian seafront and town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NR34 8JN· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteNR12 0SH· approx. 38 km
Visit websiteNR8 6ND· approx. 43 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.
