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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 48.2853, -113.6107

Estimated forage here is better than about 83% of sites in Montana. Against other Montana sites it stands out most in summer (87th percentile) and lowest in fall (15th). Nearest mapped water: mapped stream or canal (may be dry in late summer), 0.35 mi SE.

Ranking

  • Continental US: 62nd percentile (spring 33rd, summer 82nd, fall 64th)
  • Montana: 83rd percentile (spring 80th, summer 87th, fall 15th)
  • Canadian Rockies: 69th percentile (spring 86th, summer 70th, fall 14th)

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

Season

  • First forage: Apr 1 — Willows
  • Main flow: Jun 1 to Aug 15 — Snowberry, Huckleberries, Willows
  • Season ends: Sep 30

What the honey would be made of

  • Spring honey (March to June): Willows, Huckleberries, Native wildflowers, Kinnikinnick; dark amber
  • Summer honey (July and August): Snowberry, Huckleberries, Native wildflowers, Mallow ninebark; water white
  • Fall honey (September to November): Snowberry, Fireweed, Spotted and diffuse knapweed, Native wildflowers; white
  • Whole season (March to November): Snowberry, Willows, Huckleberries, Native wildflowers; 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.