Arcadia Bees
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Bee forage check

How good is this spot for honey bees?

Enter an address or tap the map. You'll see which bee plants and crops are within flight range (about 3.7 miles, with nearer land counting more), when the honey flow comes and when there's a dearth, nearby water, a few things worth checking, and how the spot ranks against random sites in your state and across the country.

Or tap the map. We don't store your address or exact location.

The colors are the national forage map: every square kilometer of the lower 48, scored the same way. See the honey flow for your state and town, the best and worst spots we found, or how the scoring works.

Forage report for 39.4853, -121.3161

Estimated forage here is better than about 58% of sites in California. Against other California sites it stands out most in spring (65th percentile) and lowest in fall (20th). Nearest mapped water: mapped stream or canal (may be dry in late summer), less than 0.1 mi away.

Ranking

  • Continental US: 60th percentile (spring 92nd, summer 13th, fall 6th)
  • California: 58th percentile (spring 65th, summer 36th, fall 20th)
  • Sierra Nevada: 81st percentile (spring 86th, summer 8th, fall 14th)

Percentile among 3,000 random land points across California, scored the same way; land in general, not beekeepers' yards.

Season

  • First forage: Feb 1 — Kinnikinnick, Maples, Dandelion
  • Main flow: Feb 16 to May 15 — Kinnikinnick, Snowberry, Ceanothus: redstem
  • Season ends: Aug 15

What the honey would be made of

  • Spring honey (March to June): Snowberry, Kinnikinnick, Ceanothus: redstem, Spring-flowering shrubs; light amber
  • Summer honey (July and August): Snowberry, Dandelion, Clovers: white, alsike and red, Fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster); light amber
  • Fall honey (September to November): Fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster), Garden flowers, Spotted and diffuse knapweed; amber
  • Whole season (March to November): Snowberry, Kinnikinnick, Ceanothus: redstem, Spring-flowering shrubs; light amber

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. Honey composition is a nectar-source estimate, not a pollen analysis. Benchmark 2026.5. How this works.