Honey Bees

It should be noted that oilseed rape is particularly attractive to bees because it produces large quantities of pollen, the flowers are easy to reach and large amounts of nectar are produced. Honey bees and wild bees have little direct beneficial effect in pollinating oilseed rape, as it is self-pollinating. However, they are important for other crops and should not be sacrificed through thoughtless crop treatments. Oilseed rape should therefore be sprayed only after flowering, although in practice it is extremely hard to decide when flowering has finished because even when the crop has an overall green appearance the secondary or tertiary racemes may still have flowers that will attract bees.