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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.

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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 48.6044, -118.0604

Estimated forage here is better than about 70% of sites in Washington. Against other Washington sites it stands out most in fall (93rd percentile) and lowest in spring (65th). Biggest nearby bee crops: alfalfa (nearest 0.5 mi NE, grown 1 of the last 5 years); clover and wildflowers (nearest 0.6 mi E, grown 1 of the last 5 years); sorghum (nearest 1.0 mi SE, grown 1 of the last 5 years). Nearest mapped water: creek, wetland or wet meadow, 0.18 mi NW. 1 thing to watch (below).

Ranking

  • Continental US: 86th percentile (spring 75th, summer 85th, fall 91st)
  • Washington: 70th percentile (spring 65th, summer 77th, fall 93rd)
  • Northern Rockies: 94th percentile (spring 97th, summer 73rd, fall 94th)

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

Season

  • First forage: Mar 16 — Dandelion, Willows, Maples
  • Main flow: Apr 16 to Jul 31 — Snowberry, Clovers: white, alsike and red, Dandelion
  • Fall flow: Aug 16 to Sep 15 — Alfalfa, Snowberry, Spotted and diffuse knapweed
  • Season ends: Oct 15

Bee crops nearby

  • Alfalfa: about 70 acres in a typical year, nearest 0.5 mi NE, blooms late Jun – early Oct
  • Alfalfa: about 228 acres in a typical year, nearest 0.9 mi SE, blooms late Jun – early Oct
  • Alfalfa: about 120 acres in a typical year, nearest 1.1 mi S, blooms late Jun – early Oct
  • Clover and wildflowers: about 8 acres in a typical year, nearest 0.6 mi E, blooms early May – early Sep
  • Alfalfa: about 163 acres in a typical year, nearest 1.7 mi SE, blooms late Jun – early Oct
  • Alfalfa: about 9 acres in a typical year, nearest 0.7 mi NW, blooms late Jun – early Oct

What the honey would be made of

  • Spring honey (March to June): Dandelion, Clovers: white, alsike and red, Snowberry, Willows; light amber
  • Summer honey (July and August): Snowberry, Alfalfa, Clovers: white, alsike and red, Spotted and diffuse knapweed; extra light amber
  • Fall honey (September to November): Alfalfa, Spotted and diffuse knapweed, Snowberry, Clovers: white, alsike and red; white
  • Whole season (March to November): Snowberry, Alfalfa, Dandelion, Clovers: white, alsike and red; extra light amber

Things to watch

  • Bee crops nearby that are often sprayed. Cherries, sweet: insecticides used on about 93% of acres in Washington (2025); Cherries, tart: insecticides used on about 45% of surveyed US acres (2025). 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.
  • No digital FEMA flood map here. FEMA has no digital flood map for this area. Ask the county, and look for low ground near creeks before placing hives.

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.