Osbaldwick is a village on the eastern edge of York, now surrounded by modern housing but retaining its medieval church, village green and a scatter of older farm buildings. The University of York's Heslington campus wildflower meadows are nearby, providing managed grassland forage through summer; the A64 corridor and the Grimston Bar area carry hawthorn hedgerows and oilseed rape on the Vale of York plain to the east. York and District BKA is well represented in this part of the city.
Collectors are called to swarms in the churchyard lime and yew on the village green, in the garden hedges and mature trees of the older properties, in the hawthorn hedgerows on the farm tracks towards Dunnington, and on the wildflower meadow edges of Heslington East.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
YO19 5UF· approx. 2 km
Visit websiteLS25 6HH· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteYO61 3AG· approx. 20 km
Association data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape on the Vale of York arable fields around Dunnington, Poppleton and Skelton opens the season from early April. Hawthorn is dense on the field-boundary hedgerows all around the city fringe. York city centre is defined by its lime flow in June — Museum Gardens, Dean's Park, the Knavesmire lime avenue and the Victorian residential streets of Bishopthorpe Road and Bootham all contribute. Bramble is prolific on the railway embankment and Strensall Common edges; willowherb and himalayan balsam follow on the Ouse riverside. Bell heather on Strensall Common gives a modest but genuine late-July supplement. Ivy on the City Walls, churchyard walls and older suburban gardens closes the year.
More on beekeeping in City of YorkReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
