Caistor is a small, ancient market town on the north-western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, set on a spring-line at the foot of the chalk scarp where clean water issues from the limestone above the clay vale. The Market Rasen BKA covers the town. The wold scarp above the town carries limestone grassland with hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple in the old hedgerows; the vale below holds oilseed rape in spring and white clover on the permanent grassland; and the Wolds villages of Swallow, Nettleton and North Kelsey add orchard and garden forage through summer. Gorse is common on the wold tops towards Pelham's Pillar.
Collectors regularly respond to swarms in the mature trees and lime-stone walled gardens of the High Street and Grimsby Road conservation area, in the old farm outbuildings and barn roofs of the wold-edge villages of Nettleton and Clixby, along the spring-line hedge trees running from Caistor towards North Kelsey, and in the limestone dry-stone boundary walls and garden eaves of the outlying wold farms.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
LN8 3TR· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteDN20 0JR· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteLN11 0GN· approx. 27 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.
