Hassocks is a small commuter village between Brighton and Burgess Hill, set in a gap in the Downs with Ditchling Common immediately to its north and the open chalk escarpment rising steeply to the south towards Ditchling Beacon. The common carries heather and gorse; the field margins hold bramble and clover; and the older residential gardens of the village are full of lime, sycamore and horse chestnut that produce a reliable June flow.
Collectors regularly attend swarms on the gorse and birch scrub margins of Ditchling Common, in the mature garden trees of the Keymer Road and Clayton Road areas, on the garden hedgerows at the village fringes towards Hurstpierpoint and Ditchling, and in chimney stacks and roof voids of the older Victorian railway-era properties near the station.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BN7 2LR· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteRH19 4SJ· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteRH11 9AU· approx. 19 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.
