Honey bee forage in Lakewood Club, Michigan

When is the honey flow in Lakewood Club?

• First forage: Mar 16 (dandelion)
• Main flow: Apr 16 to Jul 15, peaking late May (clovers: white, alsike and red, dandelion)
• Fall flow: Aug 1 to Sep 15 (fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster), clovers: white, alsike and red, dandelion)
• Season ends: Oct 31

Forage available to a colony through the year at the center of Lakewood Club, from what grows within flight range (about 3.7 miles) and when it blooms here. Dates are the model's estimate for a typical year; the spring index for this spot falls on May 14.

What the honey is made of

• Spring honey (March to June): dandelion, clovers: white, alsike and red, roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), summer-flowering shrubs; light amber, mixed: part of it sets quickly, part stays liquid
• Summer honey (July and August): clovers: white, alsike and red, roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), summer-flowering shrubs, fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster); extra light amber, likely to set over some months
• Fall honey (September to November): fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster), clovers: white, alsike and red, dandelion, garden flowers; light amber, mixed: part of it sets quickly, part stays liquid
• Whole season (March to November): clovers: white, alsike and red, dandelion, roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster); light amber, mixed: part of it sets quickly, part stays liquid

Nectar-source estimate (plants weighted by how much bees favor them), not a pollen analysis. Full honey estimate.

Bee crops within flight range

• Alfalfa: about 45 acres in a typical year, nearest 2.2 mi W, blooms late Jun – early Sep (grown 3 of the last 5 years)
• Apples: about 7 acres in a typical year, nearest 2.1 mi W, blooms early May – late May

From USDA's crop maps for 2021–2025; fields rotate, so a crop counts by how often it was grown. Listing a field says nothing about its owner.

The land and water around Lakewood Club

Mostly: North-Central Interior Dry Oak Forest and Woodland; Northeastern North American Temperate Forest Plantation; Laurentian-Acadian Northern Oak Forest.

Nearest mapped water: pond, lake or river 0.33 mi NE; open water 0.34 mi NE.

Things to watch

• Bee crops nearby that are often sprayed. Apples: insecticides used on about 77% of surveyed US acres (2025). Figures are from USDA's Agricultural Chemical Use Survey, matched by crop type from the crop map. The survey counts any insecticide use in the crop year (not seed treatments) and doesn't say when; ask nearby growers about spray timing.

How Lakewood Club ranks

Percentiles among 3,000 random land points in each region, scored the same way: land in general, not beekeepers' apiaries.

About 65% of the land here is scored with national averages for its vegetation type rather than measured plant cover, so the wild-plant part of this estimate is rougher than the crop part.

Nearby

Twin Lake 4 mi · Whitehall 5 mi · Montague 6 mi · North Muskegon 9 mi · Muskegon 10 mi · Rothbury 11 mi

All towns in Michigan · National map · How the scoring works

An estimate from public maps (USDA crop maps 2021–2025 averaged, LANDFIRE vegetation), not a survey of the ground. Maps can't see garden plantings, understory density, other beekeepers' hives, or this year's weather. The point is the Census Bureau's published center of Lakewood Club (43.3762, -86.2526); a yard a mile or two away can differ, so check your own spot. The FEMA flood map was not checked for this page. Benchmark 2026.5, built 2026-10-19. How this works · All sources.