Honey bee forage in Girard, Texas

When is the honey flow in Girard?

• First forage: Jan 16 (roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), dandelion)
• Main flow: Mar 1 to Aug 15, peaking late Apr (cotton, roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), summer-flowering trees (locust, linden))
• Season ends: Oct 31

Forage available to a colony through the year at the center of Girard, from what grows within flight range (about 3.7 miles) and when it blooms here. Dates are the model's estimate for a typical year; the spring index for this spot falls on Mar 18.

What the honey is made of

• Spring honey (March to June): roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), summer-flowering trees (locust, linden), clovers: white, alsike and red, summer-flowering shrubs; white, mixed: part of it sets quickly, part stays liquid
• Summer honey (July and August): cotton, roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard); extra light amber, likely to set within weeks to a few months
• Fall honey (September to November): fall wildflowers (goldenrod, aster), garden flowers; amber
• Whole season (March to November): cotton, roadside weeds (clover, dandelion, sweet clover, mustard), summer-flowering trees (locust, linden), clovers: white, alsike and red; extra light amber, mixed: part of it sets quickly, part stays liquid

Nectar-source estimate (plants weighted by how much bees favor them), not a pollen analysis. Full honey estimate.

Bee crops within flight range

• Cotton: about 345 acres in a typical year, nearest 0 mi , blooms late Jun – late Aug (grown 4 of the last 5 years)
• Sorghum: about 86 acres in a typical year, nearest 0.5 mi N, blooms late May – late Jun (grown 3 of the last 5 years)

From USDA's crop maps for 2021–2025; fields rotate, so a crop counts by how often it was grown. Listing a field says nothing about its owner.

The land and water around Girard

Mostly: Great Plains Comanchian Ruderal Grassland; Great Plains Comanchian Ruderal Shrubland; Llano Estacado Caprock Escarpment and Breaks Shrubland and Steppe.

Nearest mapped water: mapped stream or canal (may be dry in late summer) 0.29 mi SE; creek, wetland or wet meadow 0.3 mi SE.

Things to watch

• Bee crops nearby that are often sprayed. Cotton: insecticides used on about 39% 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.

How Girard ranks

Percentiles among 3,000 random land points in each region, scored the same way: land in general, not beekeepers' apiaries.

About 61% of the land here is scored with national averages for its vegetation type rather than measured plant cover, so the wild-plant part of this estimate is rougher than the crop part.

Nearby

Jayton 9 mi · Spur 13 mi · Dickens 21 mi · Guthrie 26 mi · Aspermont 29 mi · Rotan 37 mi

All towns in Texas · National map · How the scoring works

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. The point is the Census Bureau's published center of Girard (33.3635, -100.6597); a yard a mile or two away can differ, so check your own spot. The FEMA flood map was not checked for this page. Benchmark 2026.5, built 2026-10-19. How this works · All sources.