Burnham is a large village in south Buckinghamshire between Slough and Maidenhead, most famous as the gateway to Burnham Beeches — a National Nature Reserve of ancient pollarded beech, oak and holly woodland owned by the City of London Corporation and one of the finest medieval wood-pasture landscapes in lowland England. The Beeches are also an exceptional bee-foraging site: the veteran beeches produce honeydew and flower in April, the understorey of holly, bramble and bilberry carry bees through summer, and the open heath glades still carry heather and cross-leaved heath. Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead BKA covers this part of south Bucks, and the older village gardens around Burnham High Street add lime and sycamore to the summer season.
Collectors here attend swarms in the veteran beech and oak of Burnham Beeches on the west side of the village, in the holly and bramble scrub of the Beeches' heath clearings, in the mature garden trees and chimney stacks of the older properties along Burnham High Street and Gore Road, and in the hedgerows and scrub margins of the arable and residential fringe between Burnham and Farnham Common.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SL4 3AX· approx. 6 km
Visit websiteHP9 2XG· approx. 11 km
Visit websiteHP11 1BJ· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Chiltern beech hangers produce an unusual honeydew flow some years; lime, field maple and sweet chestnut are the more reliable June flows through Marlow, High Wycombe, Amersham and Chalfont. In the Vale, oilseed rape dominates the spring and field beans support early June. Bramble is dense on the commons; rosebay willowherb fills every beech-clearing on the scarp. A strong late ivy flow runs across the flint-walled villages and ancient churchyards of the scarp foot.
More on beekeeping in BuckinghamshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
