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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