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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 40.0860, -121.5427

Estimated forage here is better than about 50% of sites in California. Against other California sites it stands out most in summer (83rd percentile) and lowest in fall (38th). Nearest mapped water: creek, wetland or wet meadow, less than 0.1 mi away.

Ranking

  • Continental US: 50th percentile (spring 70th, summer 58th, fall 17th)
  • California: 50th percentile (spring 47th, summer 83rd, fall 38th)
  • Cascades: 29th percentile (spring 48th, summer 14th, fall 36th)

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

Season

  • First forage: Mar 16 — Willows, Kinnikinnick, Dandelion
  • Main flow: Apr 1 to Jun 30 — Snowberry, Ceanothus: redstem, Kinnikinnick
  • Season ends: Sep 30

What the honey would be made of

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