Alford is a small market town set into the limestone Wolds where the chalk scarp rolls east towards the Lincolnshire Marsh and the North Sea coast. The Louth BKA covers the town. The surrounding Wolds carry a varied forage pattern: hawthorn is heavy on the ancient field hedges of the wold farms; oilseed rape colours the vale fields below in spring; white clover covers the permanent grassland of the grazed slopes; and the coastal strip between the wold foot and Sutton-on-Sea offers sea-buckthorn, gorse and wild privet on the dune and cliff-top grassland. Alford's historic five-sailed windmill is a reminder of the grain agriculture that once dominated.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature hedgerow trees and old thatched-roof properties of the market place conservation area, in the garden hawthorn and sycamore of the surrounding residential streets, in the wold-farm hedgerows and old grain-store buildings along the Bluestone Heath road, and on the coastal dune scrub between Anderby Creek and Sutton-on-Sea.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
LN11 0GN· approx. 18 km
Visit websiteLN10 6PY· approx. 28 km
Visit websitePE21 6NW· approx. 34 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the defining early Lincolnshire flow, enormous in scale across the Fens and Wolds. Field beans, hawthorn and blackthorn carry the hedgerows. Lime and sweet chestnut line the Georgian streets of Lincoln, Stamford and Boston. Bramble is universal, and rosebay willowherb flushes disused airfields and dismantled rail corridors. The Lincolnshire Wolds, though not high, carry sainfoin and chalk grassland herbs. Coastal buckthorn at Gibraltar Point and ivy in the Wolds villages finish a long year.
More on beekeeping in LincolnshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
