Bee swarm in Dilwyn? Help is a minute away.

Dilwyn is a quiet black-and-white village on the broad clay-with-limestone plateau of central Herefordshire, between Weobley and Leominster, set in an ancient enclosure landscape of deep double-hedges, small family orchards and mixed pasture. Herefordshire Beekeepers covers the village and the Arrow valley parishes surrounding it. The orchard-and-hedge character of this part of Herefordshire is excellent for honeybees: cider apple and traditional perry pear orchards open the season in late April; hawthorn and field maple on the old elm-free hedgebanks follow in May; meadow clover and red clover on the permanent pasture give a sustained June flow; and the tall ivy on the sandstone fabric of St Mary the Virgin church and the ancient farmstead walls carries colonies into October.

The season opens on tens of thousands of tonnes of orchard blossom — cider apple, culinary apple and traditional perry pear — across the Leominster and Hereford belt. Hawthorn on deep double-hedges follows; hop gardens provide a quieter supplementary forage. Lime and sweet chestnut dot the market towns. The Black Mountain foothills add bilberry, heather and gorse to hives on the county edge, and bramble is dense throughout. A long, strong ivy flow on red-sandstone churches and orchard windbreaks carries the year out.