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 48.8620, -117.3726

Estimated forage here is better than about 29% of sites in Washington. Spring, summer and fall all rank about the same against other Washington sites. Nearest mapped water: open water, 0.14 mi W.

Ranking

  • Continental US: 59th percentile (spring 53rd, summer 76th, fall 52nd)
  • Washington: 29th percentile (spring 39th, summer 38th, fall 47th)
  • Northern Rockies: 31st percentile (spring 64th, summer 4th, fall 40th)

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

Season

  • First forage: Mar 16 — Willows, Dandelion
  • Main flow: May 1 to Jul 31 — Snowberry, Willows, Huckleberries
  • Season ends: Sep 30

What the honey would be made of

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

Things to watch

  • 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.