Bee swarm in Musselburgh? Help is a minute away.

Musselburgh is the largest town in East Lothian, standing at the mouth of the River Esk where it enters the Firth of Forth. The Honest Toun, as it is known, combines a dense Victorian and Edwardian townscape with the green corridors of the River Esk, the Lagoon nature reserve created behind the Levenhall Links ash lagoons, and the links racecourse that stretches east along the foreshore. The River Esk corridor carries willows, alders and sycamore between Fisherrow Harbour and the inland suburbs; the Lagoon reserve at Levenhall holds sea aster and sea purslane on the lagoon margins and is an important late-season foraging area. Oilseed rape on the farmland between Musselburgh and Tranent contributes to the April–May flow, and the improved grasslands of the racecourse links carry white clover from June.

Oilseed rape is the defining East Lothian flow: the arable fields between Haddington, Tranent and East Linton carry a mass April–May bloom that fills supers quickly and requires fast extraction to prevent granulation. White clover follows on the improved grasslands and verges through June and July, sustained by the mild maritime influence from the Forth. Sycamore and hawthorn bridge the gap between OSR and clover on the field margins and hedgerows of the River Tyne valley floor. Sea buckthorn on the dune links at Gullane, Yellowcraig and Longniddry Bents provides a distinctive late-summer nectar supplement. The Lammermuir Hills above Gifford and Longformacus carry heather from mid-July into September, and apiaries on the upland edge can work both the arable spring flow and a heather crop in the same season.