A honeybee colony's fortunes track the flowers around it almost exactly. This scene arranges twelve real UK forage sources — from snowdrops to ivy — around a central hive, each blooming and fading on its own real bloom window. As you scrub through the year, the landscape lights up and dims, and a nectar-flow chart above the scene traces the colony's income month by month.
A single strong colony can bring in over 10kg of nectar on a good oilseed rape day — but the same colony can run a net deficit through a slow, wet June gap unless it has stores in reserve.
Twelve real UK forage species bloom and fade around a central hive as you scrub through the beekeeping year, while a live nectar-flow chart traces the colony's seasonal income — including the dip beekeepers call the June gap.
Each species has its own real bloom window. Spring's flush (willow, blackthorn, oilseed rape, hawthorn) ends before midsummer's flush (bramble, clover, lime) begins, producing the mid-season nectar trough known as the June gap.
Scrub the month slider or let the year auto-play, switch between lowland/arable and upland/moorland landscapes, and adjust colony strength to see how the store trend swings between surplus and deficit.
Oilseed rape can deliver a colony's single richest nectar flow of the year, yet heather moorland further north or west often produces the last major flow before autumn dearth sets in.