Chichester is a Roman cathedral city tucked between the South Downs and the harbour — a place of flint walls, Georgian townhouses and old college gardens that collectively feed a healthy local honey bee population. Swarms here are a familiar spring sight, often clustered on cathedral-green limes, Priory Park cedars and the mature gardens inside the city walls.
Our collectors regularly get called to swarms in the cathedral close and Priory Park, along the Canal Basin, on the garden boundaries of Summersdale and Parklands, and in the old yew hedges of Bishop Luffa and the garden walls of the Pallants.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PO18 0EE· approx. 5 km
Visit websitePO3 5FS· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteGU32 3HG· approx. 22 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.
