Bee Forage Range Map
Drop a pin on your apiary or a site you are scouting and see the 1, 2 and 3 mile rings your bees will actually work.
Bees do not forage in your backyard. They forage across your whole neighborhood, and then some. Most foraging happens within 2 miles of the hive, which sounds small until you see it drawn on a map: that circle covers about 8,000 acres. This tool draws it for you.
Drop a pin on your apiary, or on a spot you are considering for one, and the map shows the 1, 2 and 3 mile rings with the acreage inside each. Use it to scout new apiary sites, to understand what your bees are actually working, or to see whether that field you are worried about is even in range.
Calculator
Find Your Location
You can also just tap anywhere on the map to drop the pin there.
Units
Rings are drawn at 1, 2 and 3 miles from the pin.
Forage Map
Drop a pin to see the rings. The areas above are what each circle covers once you do.
How far bees really fly
A honey bee colony works the landscape in rough zones. The first mile is the core, where foraging is cheapest and traffic is heaviest. Out to 2 miles is the typical working range where most nectar and pollen comes from across a season. Bees can push 3 miles and beyond, with foragers recorded 5 or more miles out, but long trips burn much of the energy they collect, so a colony only ranges that far when nearby forage is thin.
Why the acreage matters
The numbers surprise almost everyone. A 1 mile radius is about 2,010 acres. Two miles is about 8,040 acres. Three miles is about 18,100 acres, which is over 28 square miles. Two lessons fall out of that. First, your bees' diet is decided by the landscape, not by your garden. Second, when you are picking an apiary site, you are really picking the 8,000 acres around it.
Scouting a new apiary site
This is where the map earns its keep. Drop a pin on each candidate site and compare what falls inside the 2 mile ring: woodlots and hedgerows for spring build-up, open ground and roadsides for summer weeds, water within the first mile, and how much of the circle is dead space like pavement, monoculture turf or open water. A few minutes of comparing rings can save a season of wondering why one yard always out-produces another.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far do bees fly from the hive?
Most foraging happens within 2 miles (about 3 km) of the hive, and the heaviest traffic is inside the first mile. Bees can range 5 miles or more when forage is scarce, but flying that far burns much of the energy the trip collects, so a colony only does it when it has to.
How many acres do bees cover?
The circles add up fast. A 1 mile radius covers about 2,010 acres, 2 miles covers about 8,040 acres and 3 miles covers about 18,100 acres. That is why a single backyard hive is really foraging across an entire town, not just your yard.
Does planting flowers near my hive help?
Every bit of forage helps, but keep the scale in mind. A colony working an 8,000 acre circle will not be fed by a flower bed. What moves the needle at hive scale is what dominates the landscape within 2 miles: trees, hedgerows, crops, weeds along roadsides and how much of it blooms across the whole season.
How should I use the rings to pick an apiary site?
Drop a pin on a candidate site and study what falls inside the 2 mile ring, because that is where most foraging happens. Look for diverse bloom across the season, water within the first mile and gaps like large monocultures, pavement or open water that produce nothing. Comparing two candidate sites side by side takes about a minute each.
Do the circles account for terrain or wind?
No, they are straight-line distances. Bees will fly around large obstacles and prefer not to cross big ridges or open water, so treat the rings as a first-pass planning tool rather than a guarantee of where your bees go. For siting decisions the picture inside the rings matters more than the exact edge.