Burgess Hill is a substantial Mid Sussex town that grew around the Brighton main line, with large residential areas, St John's Park, and the open ground of Ditchling Common close to its southern edge. The patchwork of garden, hedgerow and Low Weald farmland around the town supports a healthy honey bee population, and swarms appear regularly in gardens and older properties through May and June.
Collectors here regularly attend swarms in the garden trees of the Hammonds Ridge and Leylands Road areas, on the shrubby margins of Ditchling Common, in the older brick-built properties near the town centre, and in the hedgerow hawthorns of the farming lanes towards Keymer and Ditchling.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BN7 2LR· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteRH19 4SJ· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteRH11 9AU· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
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.
More on beekeeping in West SussexReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
