Bee swarm in Clutton? Help is a minute away.

Clutton is a village at the foot of the Mendip Hills on the Cam Brook, with orchard country on the hillslopes toward Bishop Sutton and the Chew valley giving bees a reliable sequence from apple blossom through to autumn ivy. An historic staging post on the road between Bristol and Wells, the village retains older farmstead buildings and a well-planted churchyard, with the surrounding lane hedgerows carrying hawthorn, field maple and elder that flower in succession from April onward. Bath Beekeepers and Mendip Beekeepers together give good coverage of this BS39 area.

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.