Lincolnshire is the second largest county in England and one of the most intensively farmed. That cuts both ways for bees: colossal nectar flows when the rape and beans are out, and long empty stretches in between when nothing is flowering across thousands of acres.
Oilseed rape in April is the defining crop, sown at a scale that can fill supers in a fortnight. Field beans follow in June and borage appears on some rotations in July. The Lincolnshire Wolds break up the arable belt with chalk grassland, hedgerows and mixed farming, and colonies sited there get a more varied and better-balanced season. Along the coast between Gibraltar Point and the Humber, saltmarsh and dune flora — sea lavender, thrift, restharrow — offer something quite different. Lincoln, Stamford and Grantham all have mature lime and parkland, and the county's many old churchyards and verges are increasingly managed for wildflowers.
Predominantly pale and firm-setting from rape. Wolds apiaries produce a more varied summer honey; coastal ones a rarer, more savoury crop.
Flowering times are typical and can shift by two to three weeks with the weather, season and altitude.
Lincoln, Grantham, Boston, Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Stamford, Louth, Spalding
Oilseed rape. It is grown across the county on an enormous scale and its honey granulates faster than almost any other — often within two weeks. Local beekeepers usually sell it soft-set. If you want runny honey from Lincolnshire, ask for a later summer crop rather than the spring one.
Generally yes. The Wolds have hedgerows, chalk grassland and mixed farming rather than unbroken arable, so colonies there work a wider range of forage across a longer season. The honey is more varied in colour and flavour than the pale rape-dominated crop from the Fen.
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