Canola

[Tom J]

Can Anyone tell me how long Canola will Bloom. And is it worth moving hives to it

[high rate of speed]

Short bloom period,but yes it is worth moving bees into.

[riverrat]

you got canola up your way. there is some farmers looking into planiting it down here

[BigDaddyDS]

I'm only familiar with Canola (rapeseed) that was planted in September and was blooming in October and November, or late season Canola. This variety bloomed, like I say, in mid-October and was foraged by my bees until frost. It was VERY nice in terms of a flow, although, they took very little medicated syrup because of the natural forage. To illustrate, the bees would fill a drawn medium super in 2-weeks, no problem.

DS

[Tom J]

you got canola up your way. there is some farmers looking into planiting it down here

Yes there is 80 acres planted 3/4 of a mile north of one of my bee yards it has been blooming for about 2 weeks now I was thinking about moving 10 of my new hives over there but will it be worth moving since it has bloomed for 2 weeks now how much longer They planted this last fall for spring crop

[ooptec]

Hey,

Here on the Canadian prairies we have miles and miles of canola and the bees do very well with it, nice light honey. The one thing you will notice about it is that it crystalizes fast in the comb. Not too much of a problem here as most of us store our honey at just above freezing so when it does crystalize it 'creams' at those temps. Alternately you can seed it w/already creamed honey and should use it as a matrix at most temps.

cheers

peter

[BeeAware]

There was 500 acres of Canola planted in my area last September. It was in bloom during March & April this spring. Although I had no bees near it, I talked with a beekeeper who did and he said his bees filled supers in no time from the field. However, it crystalizes really fast.

This planting was kind of an experiment to see how well it would do in this area. From all reports I've heard it has done well, so maybe there will be another planting this fall. I know the farmer and may try to arrange to get a few colonies in there next spring.