> I understand that in alberta canola pollination is a
>paid bussiness. I understand the price for that service is around us$100 per
>hive. My argentinian collegue says that in saskatchewan it is not paid.

You are both right.

The paid pollination is for placing bees at several hives per acre on seed canola 
fields.  They must be brought in on schedule and removed when requested and
the period of pollination coincides with the main honey flow.  Due to the 
overstocking required for good pollination, the honey yields are usually far lower 
than in hives run for honey production.

Honey producers on the other hand, typically place their hives on permanent 
locations where they expect the bees will find varied forage all season.  Since 
canola is a major crop, there is almost always one or more canola fields close to 
these locations and the farmers get free pollination.  The beekeepers don't 
mind, since they get huge crops of excellent honey from canola.

On the other hand, beekeepers in the past went to great lengths to avoid 
rapeseed, the predecessor of canola, because it produced dark and foul-tasting 
honey.

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