Bee swarm in Goodrich? Help is a minute away.

Goodrich is a small village in the Wye Valley between Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth, dominated by the spectacular red-sandstone ruins of Goodrich Castle — one of the finest medieval fortresses in the Welsh Marches — set on a spur above the wooded river gorge. The Wye Valley BKA covers the area, and the surrounding landscape — the ancient sessile-oak woodland of the Wye gorge on both banks between Goodrich and Symonds Yat, the hawthorn and field-maple hedgerows of the old enclosures on the high ground toward Pencraig and Llangarron, the lime and sweet chestnut of the Goodrich Court grounds, the traditional cider-apple orchards around Llangarron and Welsh Bicknor, and the Wye riverside willows and alder carr below the castle — gives local bees an outstandingly varied woodland, orchard and riverside season.

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.