Bee swarm in Kempston? Help is a minute away.

Kempston is a large town on the south bank of the Great Ouse immediately south-west of Bedford, effectively the urban twin of the county town, with its own distinct centre, extensive Victorian terracing and the riverside Kempston watermill as its oldest landmark. The Bedfordshire BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the Great Ouse watermeadows and riverside willows between Kempston and Bromham, the old parkland and mixed hedgerow farmland of the Kempston Rural fringe toward Wootton, the lime-lined avenues of the Bedford Park and Embankment extension into the Kempston suburb, and the oilseed rape and field-bean arable of the flatter Ouse vale south of town — gives local bees solid access to both suburban garden and river-valley forage.

Oilseed rape is the dominant early flow across central Beds, supplemented by field beans. The Greensand Ridge brings sweet chestnut and bramble in the woods of Woburn, Aspley and Sandy. Lime lines the Georgian streets of Bedford and the older parts of Ampthill and Leighton Buzzard. Chalk grassland herbs — wild thyme, marjoram, knapweed — are still found on the downland fringe near Dunstable. Rosebay willowherb in the disused brickworks is a minor but characteristic flow; ivy on limestone village walls finishes the year.