Farnham is a handsome Georgian market town on the River Wey, sitting at the western end of the North Downs in a landscape of hop garden remnants, chalk farmland and the sandy heathland of the Hog's Back. The Farnham BKA is the western arm of Surrey's BKA network and covers a broad swathe of the county's most productive beekeeping country, including the hop country of Binsted and the chalk downland of Seale and Puttenham.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the walled gardens and orchard trees of the Castle Street and West Street conservation areas, in the heron-elm hedgerow lanes towards Binsted and Bentley, in the hop-garden remnants on the old estates around Bucks Horn Oak, and in the Georgian townhouse chimney stacks and lime trees of the town centre.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
GU10 2DL· approx. 4 km
Visit websiteGU52 7SN· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteGU5 0LB· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring builds fast on blackthorn, hawthorn and horse chestnut along the North Downs scarp, then leans heavily on field maple, sycamore and the urban lime avenues of Guildford, Dorking and Woking. The lowland heaths — Chobham, Frensham, Thursley — give a late bell heather crop in good Augusts that colonies here can count on, supplemented by rosebay willowherb across the MoD training land. Bramble is dense from Box Hill to the Surrey Hills AONB, and the old walled churchyards carry a strong ivy flow into autumn.
More on beekeeping in SurreyReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
