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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 42.0646, -89.0953

Estimated forage here is better than about 34% of sites in Illinois. Against other Illinois sites it ranks highest in summer (49th percentile) and lowest in spring (28th). Biggest nearby bee crops: corn (right here, grown 2 of the last 5 years); soybeans (right here, grown 3 of the last 5 years); alfalfa (nearest 0.7 mi S, grown 3 of the last 5 years). Nearest mapped water: mapped stream or canal (may be dry in late summer), 0.29 mi NW. 1 thing to watch (below).

Ranking

  • Continental US: 88th percentile (spring 16th, summer 94th, fall 14th)
  • Illinois: 34th percentile (spring 28th, summer 49th, fall 36th)
  • Central Corn Belt Plains: 26th percentile (spring 51st, summer 33rd, fall 50th)

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: Jul 1 to Aug 15 — Soybeans
  • Season ends: Aug 31

Bee crops nearby

  • Corn: about 15,804 acres in a typical year, nearest 0 mi E, blooms early Jul – early Aug
  • Soybeans: about 6,125 acres in a typical year, nearest 0 mi E, blooms late Jun – late Aug
  • Soybeans: about 931 acres in a typical year, nearest 1.1 mi S, blooms late Jun – late Aug
  • Soybeans: about 159 acres in a typical year, nearest 1 mi W, blooms late Jun – late Aug
  • Soybeans: about 153 acres in a typical year, nearest 1.6 mi N, blooms late Jun – late Aug
  • Soybeans: about 885 acres in a typical year, nearest 2.5 mi N, blooms late 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): Clovers: white, alsike and red, Dandelion, Garden flowers, Roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard); extra light amber
  • Whole season (March to November): Soybeans, Dandelion, Clovers: white, alsike and red; light amber

Things to watch

  • Bee crops nearby that are often sprayed. Sweet Corn: insecticides used on about 44% of surveyed US acres (2024). 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.

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.