Canola Pollination in Australia

[OzBuzz]

Hey Everybody,

I was wondering if those that have experience providing hives for canola pollination could let me in on their tips/advice? I'm supplying 50 hives to a grower here in Australia next week and this is my first time on this crop... i know it's labour intensive given the rapid build up but how do others manage their hives while on the crop?

[OzBuzz]

Nobody has done canola pollination?

[nella]

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/117112/bee-on-canoloa.pdf

[OzBuzz]

Thanks Nella,

I've already got the full set of reports from the RIRDC in regard the pollination fact sheets - i was hoping someone might have some 'real world' experience of pearls of wisdom they might be able to pass on from their experiences on canola...

[the-ecohouse.com]

Hi There,

There is certainly an abundance of Canola in Victoria this year.

A few years back I was asked to supply a few hives for a trial patch that a local farmer was running.

We ran a couple of test patches one with the hives smack bang in the middle of the field (in an un-sown square) and one with hive along the side. (the first patch yielded more canola) We prepared the hives in autumn by feeding them up with sugawater and essential oils (prob to late for that this year) so we started off with hives that were rearing to go.

Before we took them out we removed 90% of the winter honey stores. added fresh plastics to the bottom supers (I run 3x 10frame deeps with 9 frames in this type of crop). Moved all brood up to the third super, put the queen and queen excluder above the first and ran a double honey box to restrict brood levels. My strain of bee goes broodier otherwise.   

They go nuts when the weather comes on and will require plenty of inspections and a regular swap out of supers. BEE WARNED I only used plastic foundation in wood frame, due to the fact canola candy's quite quickly or seems to be dam hard to extract. For me its just easier to scrape and crush off some of the frames. (not my preferred method) ended up creaming most of this stuff.

Oh and watch the pesticide, they tend to spray during the peak flowing periods, Which means more trips out to pick up the bees.
Its prob not the guy your working for that you need to be concerned about with this more so the guy over the fence or down the road.

Nothing is worse than a dead hive a ruined gear...

Good luck

[tedlemay]

have a friend that does canola. dont know much about it. he says he creams all the honey off the canola due to the rapid crystalization.

[jaseemtp]

So how fast do they build up off this crop?  Say you had one 10 frame deep box put out on them.  Would that require much inspection if you had two supers over them?

[asprince]

So how fast do they build up off this crop?  Say you had one 10 frame deep box put out on them.  Would that require much inspection if you had two supers over them?

Yes! If the hive is very strong they can fill a shallow super of drawn comb in a week. I have see them draw out ten deep frames of wax in a week. Canola is great for build up but the honey does crystallize fast. It is nice and light.

I hate that no one in my area has planted any this year.

Steve

[jaseemtp]

Thanks, now to find some one growing it.  LOL