Broadstairs is a compact Victorian seaside town on the east Thanet coast, best known for its sandy bays, Dickens connections and calm harbour. The chalky clifftop grassland above Viking Bay, the sheltered walled gardens of the Victorian villas, and the Thanet agricultural plain behind the town give local honey bees a varied coastal season from early spring to November ivy.
Local collectors attend swarms in the cliff-garden escallonia and tamarisk hedges above the beach huts, in the older chimney stacks and roof voids of the Victorian streets around Harbour Street, in the sheltered walled gardens of the Dickens-era properties on the cliff top, and in the rough chalk grassland scrub on the north side of the town above North Foreland.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CT12 4HQ· approx. 9 km
Visit websiteCT15 4AD· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteCT4 5DY· approx. 24 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Few places open as explosively as Kent. Cherry, apple, pear and plum in the orchards of Faversham, Tenterden and the Medway bring an intense early flow, followed closely by oilseed rape on the North Downs dip slopes. Lime and sweet chestnut carry hives through June, particularly in the coppiced woods of the Weald. Late summer is often dominated by fireweed on the chalk pits and disturbed ground, with a strong and valuable ivy flow across the coastal plain from Deal to Whitstable. Hops, though decorative for bees, add to the mosaic.
More on beekeeping in KentReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
