Bee swarm collection in Bath and North East Somerset

The season opens on blackthorn and willow along the Avon riverside at Saltford and Keynsham, followed by hawthorn and apple blossom through the Chew valley orchards in May. Lime is the defining June flow in Bath — the plane trees of Great Pulteney Street, the lime avenues of Royal Victoria Park and the Prior Park landscape garden are particularly productive. Mendip-fringe limestone grasslands around Chew Magna, Bishop Sutton and Clutton carry wild thyme, knapweed and marjoram from June into July. Bramble is dense on the coal-measure slopes above Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Timsbury; willowherb and himalayan balsam flush the Avon towpath below Saltford and Keynsham through August. Ivy on Bath stone walls and village churchyards closes the year into October.

Bath Beekeepers' Association (bathbeekeepers.com) is one of the South West's oldest local associations, with members working in the city's garden squares, the limestone villages of the Chew valley and the former coalfield country around Radstock. Keynsham Beekeepers also serves the Avon corridor. Collectors handle the full range: Georgian chimney stacks and walled gardens in Bath, orchard outbuildings in Saltford and Clutton, and mine-shaft-era farmyards on the Mendip edge.