# Is Canola honey worth dealing with?



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Sure! Just don't waste any time getting your crop extracted.


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

Find that my canola honey starts to crystalize in the jar in about 7 days, so as Jim says don't waste any time getting to extracting. Honey tastes good. 

I pulled 8-10 deep frames from the hive each week to get the bees empty comb, so the bees wouldn't swarm on me. Pulled about 300 lbs from one hive I had by 600 acres(a big field) of canola.

I reheated some jars of crystalized honey to 135F for 5 hours and seeing how long the honey will stay liquid. It's a week now.


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## Jon11 (Mar 29, 2011)

Jim, 
What do you do with the honey? Do you just sell it as extracted honey or do you make creamed honey out of it?


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## JoshW (Feb 5, 2013)

People love my creamed canola honey. All my hives were on canola this year.


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## Jon11 (Mar 29, 2011)

That's good looking stuff Josh. Our club is going to have program on making creamed honey soon. If I can figure it out maybe I'll give it a try.


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## JoshW (Feb 5, 2013)

Thanks, I would recommend having your hives on the canola. It produces a very light colored honey that is very desirable. A premium price is paid for light honey, quick crystallization is fine too I find that people desire the creamed honey over the liquid anyhow.


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## OlofL (Jan 21, 2006)

Schedule extraction 4-5 weeks after it starts flowering. Don't let the frames get cold (off the hives) for more than a days or two. Strain it within 48 hours (preferrably within 24 hours) of extracting. Make creamed honey and don't let it just crystallize by itself. Dealing with it this way it is an excellent honey, mild flavour, light (can actually be almost white) and easy to extract and easy to strain.


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## tsmullins (Feb 17, 2011)

JoshW said:


> View attachment 7787
> 
> 
> People love my creamed canola honey. All my hives were on canola this year.


Nice! We call it spun honey.


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## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Is canola honey worth dealing with? We think so as we sell thousands of pounds of it. It is always our highest grading as well. We have never found crystallization a problem as we extract as we pull. We like to keep pulling our yards well after the flow so the bees back fill with honey other than canola. We sell some of it local as creamed. For that we run it through very fine filter cloth and let it crystalize. It will make a very good creamed product this way.


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## Jon11 (Mar 29, 2011)

Thanks everybody. Canola is new to me. In fact, I think last year was the first time I ever saw a field of it. Hopefully it will produce honey around here as well as it does in other areas. All my surplus ususally comes from either poplar trees or clover, it would be nice to have another source to count on.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Jon11 said:


> I know a farmer who is planting a field of canola nearby and I could put some bees there. But from what I've heard canola honey is hard to extract and crystalizes very quickly. Is it even worth dealing with?


There is a saying amongst some beekeepers that goes something like this. "Whatever fills the barrel."


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## OlofL (Jan 21, 2006)

One thing to beware of is the intensity of the flow. 10 lbs/day is common in good weather so you must have enough supers ready.


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## Nick Noyes (Apr 28, 2005)

sqkcrk said:


> There is a saying amongst some beekeepers that goes something like this. "Whatever fills the barrel."


Sounds like good advice to me.


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