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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 40.9940, -88.2023

Estimated forage here is better than about 81% of sites in Illinois. Against other Illinois sites it stands out most in summer (81st percentile) and lowest in fall (26th). Biggest nearby bee crops: soybeans (right here, grown 1 of the last 5 years); corn (right here, grown 4 of the last 5 years); alfalfa (nearest 2.9 mi SW, grown 1 of the last 5 years). Nearest mapped water: mapped stream or canal (may be dry in late summer), 0.15 mi S.

Ranking

  • Continental US: 97th percentile (spring 17th, summer 99th, fall 9th)
  • Illinois: 81st percentile (spring 28th, summer 81st, fall 26th)
  • Central Corn Belt Plains: 73rd percentile (spring 51st, summer 68th, fall 39th)

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

Season

  • First forage: May 1 — Clovers: white, alsike and red, Dandelion
  • Main flow: Jun 16 to Aug 15 — Soybeans
  • Season ends: Aug 31

Bee crops nearby

  • Soybeans: about 15,537 acres in a typical year, nearest 0 mi SE, blooms late Jun – late Aug
  • Corn: about 17,060 acres in a typical year, nearest 0 mi E, blooms early Jul – early Aug
  • Soybeans: about 5 acres in a typical year, nearest 1.1 mi SE, blooms late Jun – late Aug
  • Corn: about 20 acres in a typical year, nearest 2.1 mi N, blooms early Jul – early Aug
  • Alfalfa: about 13 acres in a typical year, nearest 3.2 mi N, blooms early Jun – late Aug
  • Alfalfa: about 7 acres in a typical year, nearest 3 mi SE, blooms early Jun – late Aug

What the honey would be made of

  • Spring honey (March to June): Soybeans, Dandelion, Clovers: white, alsike and red; light amber
  • Summer honey (July and August): Soybeans
  • Fall honey (September to November): Garden flowers, Clovers: white, alsike and red, Dandelion; extra light amber
  • Whole season (March to November): Soybeans, Dandelion, Clovers: white, alsike and red; light amber

Things to watch

  • Flood map not checked. FEMA's flood map service didn't answer. Check it directly.

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.