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Wed, 11 Nov 2015 15:44:05 -0700 |
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Just catching up and have seen this repeated multiple times like it's
the gospel
"We know bees can't survive on canola honey"
and then someone added
"that canola honey forms exceptionally large crystals".
Like so many things in this world and especially in our business, this
has changed along the way. If bees couldn't survive on Canola honey,
there would be a lot of dead hives on the Canadian prairies every year
and our colony numbers would not be growing.
Firstly Canola is not Rapeseed. The two names are not interchangeable
as some seem to think and yes, the latter was a hive killer. They were
at one time described as first cousins and those of us old enough to
have kept hives on both, saw differences immediately.
Secondly, there is now a huge diversification. At any given time there
are well over a hundred variates licenced here during any given growing
season and 10-15% of those will change annually, as some are dropped and
new ones added. From the beekeepers point of view, the differences are
vast as to nectar, bloom period, etc. Fortunately in any given region
farmers will choose multiple varieties for multiple reasons (none of
which have anything do with what might be good or beneficial for us).
Most varieties now, although almost as quick to granulate as their
ancestors, form a finer crystal. Some years our hives can fill for
winter on a volunteer fall Canola flow. As Medhat commented, we're not
in any position to offer our bees liquid water (they can have all they
want in the form of snow) for 6 to 7 months of the year and our winter
time relative humidity is quite low compared to many areas. The hives
do just fine if we have addressed the other issues such as Varroa and
Nosema.
Dave Tharle
T'N'T Apiaries
Ardmore, Alberta
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