Those of you living in areas with an abundance of rapeseed/canola might like to check this one out… I know there’s a lot of it in parts of the UK for example. Jamie offers some good insights on harvesting Flow Hives where this crop is present.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPSdOyJDGLj/
If these crops don’t grow in your area - you might just enjoy this one anyway 
@Freebee2 I’m not willing to risk my expensive flow box with Canola (as it’s known here in Australia). So when local Canola starts to flower this year, I will be putting an 8 frame ideal box on my flow hive instead of the flow box, until the Canola has well and truely finished flowering. Then I will take the ideal box off, and store it to be put back on the hive for the bees to have winter 2022. Only then will I put my precious flow box on.
Trevor yes I completely understand and respect your decision It’s a tricky crop and we’ll be interested to hear how others manage this too.
Excuse my ignorance but what is an ideal box?
I will probably have Canola close by this year.
Ross
Hi @nofish welcome to this very friendly forum. Ross join the club only, a few months ago I didn’t know what the word ideal in the world of beekeeping was either, until someone explain it to me. It is a beehive box that’s about half the depth of a regular broad box and also the super box, it can be bought as one that can hold either an 8 or 10 frames. When local Canola crops start to flower I will be putting an ideal box on my hive, so that the nectar that my bees collect from those Canola crops can be stored in the frames in it. Then once the Canola crops have all stopped flowering, I will remove the ideal box, and replacing it with a flow box. The honey that the bees have stored in the ideal box, I will place it in a safe place to put back on the hive for extra food for my bees over the following winter.
Buzzy,
Thanks for the reply,
Will take your advice. A lot of Canola being planted around here right now.
No good but plenty of time, they have just planted it.
Regards Ross
@nofish, yes Ross plenty of time. There sure will be a lot of Canola everywhere that it can be grown, as the current price of Canola is high. I’m getting my ideal box/ frames from a local commercial beekeeper, and he will be wax dipping the box for me. I’m hoping at the next local amateur beekeepers meeting, to find out when he will have it ready.
My wife’s family live in the Mallee SA, 50ks out of Murray Bridge, heading towards Pinaroo, on the outskirts of a small village called Sherlock.
