Beekeepers who chase forage move colonies between sites through the season — an orchard for spring blossom, a clover or wildflower meadow for the early summer flow, a fireweed or basswood forest edge in midsummer, and a late-season crop like goldenrod or canola — before settling the colonies at a sheltered home apiary to overwinter. Each site's nectar flow rises and falls in a bell-shaped bloom curve through the year.
Commercial migratory beekeepers in some regions truck hives thousands of miles a year — most famously to California's almond bloom each February — but the same "chase the flow, protect the recovery time" logic applies to a hobbyist moving two hives between a garden and a nearby meadow.
Watch a beekeeper's truck carry a hive stack between four seasonal forage sites and a sheltered home apiary through the year, as bloom curves rise and fall and colony stress builds when moves come too close together.
Each site's nectar flow follows a bell-shaped bloom curve centred on a characteristic month. Auto mode relocates the apiary once another site is clearly ahead in bloom, and colony stress accumulates faster the sooner a move follows the last one.
Scrub the month slider to move through the year, or switch to Manual mode and click Relocate yourself. Adjust the minimum rest period and watch how it trades off forage capture against colony stress.
Real migratory beekeepers plan routes months ahead around bloom dates, because arriving even a week early or late at a site can mean missing most of a nectar flow.