What's flowering on the coalfield this month

Late June is when the old pit land around here really earns its keep. Bramble has come into full flower over the last couple of weeks, and it’s everywhere — old spoil heaps, railway cuttings, the rough ground nobody’s got round to building on. White and red clover are doing the same in the grazed fields further out.

You can tell from the hives without opening them. Bees are heavier on the wing coming back in, and the colour of what’s being brought in has shifted from the pale, almost colourless nectar of hawthorn and sycamore back in May to something darker and stronger-smelling that can only be bramble.

It’s a decent reminder of why I keep bees on reclaimed colliery land rather than somewhere more conventionally scenic. Forty years ago this was pit yard and slag heap. Left alone, it’s turned into some of the best forage for miles.

Swarm season is still very much on — if anything, strong bramble flows can make established colonies more likely to swarm as they fill up faster than expected. If you spot a cluster in the next few weeks, the usual applies: leave it be and give me a call.