Bee swarm collection in West Sussex

The county is carried by a long, staggered honey flow. Spring opens on the blackthorn and hawthorn of the Downs, followed by field maple and sycamore on the Weald, and the sweet-chestnut coppice still worked around the Arun and Rother valleys. Early summer brings white clover on the grazed chalk, bramble in every hedgerow, and the heavy lime flow that lines the streets of Chichester, Arundel and Horsham. Late summer leans on rosebay willowherb, balsam along the Adur, and a strong ivy flow into October on sheltered south-facing lanes. It is a long season, and hives work hard.

West Sussex has one of the densest beekeeper populations per square mile in the UK, supported by three long-established BKAs — Chichester, Central Sussex and Wisborough Green — and a strong tradition of training apiaries at Plumpton and Brinsbury colleges. Collectors here are used to coastal bungalow gardens, Downland farms and the commuter-belt new builds around Crawley in equal measure, and most will reach you inside the hour during peak swarm season.