Juanse

I am not in Canada,  but have run Canola stateside.  You might try emailing Ian Steppler.

Heres what I can tell you.  There are 2 varieties of canola basically spring and summer.  Spring Canola is planted the prior fall like winter wheat.  Normaly as part of a double crop.  Canola likes cool weather and stops when the temps get in the high 80F range.  It slows way down above 70F.
It is an indeterminate plant and will flower as long as the weather stays in its preferred range.   It makes a good volume of honey,  but IMO its not table grade.  It has an aftertaste,  and is VERY prone to crystallizing in the combs for those of us who run spring canola.

The Canadians and northern US run summer canola which is planted in the spring.  Better weather conditions typicly.

Decent Canola will handle 2 doubles per acre with no problem,  and you can make great honey at that loading.  The pollination period again is based on weather,  but is normally 3-5 weeks.   For us  when we run canola we will put 100-200 per drop in the middle of the fields.  So many flowers it works fine to have big yards. (email me if you want pictures)

Here we don’t get paid for it,  I suspect there are a few seed producers who pay,  but  as a oil crop here in the Midwest its done for the beekeepers benefit. 

I have bees on 260 acres right now myself,  but have sworn off Canola for honey.  Not worth the grief  here,  other crops with more value are blooming at the same time.  Its perk for me is being able to load the heck out of it, and make more bees.

Charles 


Which quality/size of hives? Is there a pollination fee/price difference
acording to size of hive (grading)? For how long do pollination period
last? How many hives per hectare or acre? How big the apiaries and at what
distance between them? etc

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html