Canola Field 1 · 2025 satellite replay · Alberta
When should the bees arrive—and when should they leave?
Follow the Camrose-area satellite record as Bee GPS weighs two practical decisions for a canola field.
For this historical canola sample, those are the first clear views meeting a simple rising-then-falling flower-colour rule. The grower’s release and the field entrance are separate checks before a truck is sent.
Replay the information available on each date
What did the satellite record tell us?
Instead of picking dates in advance, this retrospective test follows the field-colour rise and fall in the available 2025 images. It selects the first clear view above a halfway marker for arrival and the first later view below it for retrieval.
The season, date by date
A clear local view was available near the sampled canola area. It establishes a dated starting point, not a measured flower percentage.
The local flower-colour signal was lower than on the earlier June views. That is a measured image change, not yet a bloom-stage label.
An audit found these views had been skipped by the first version of the screening code. The July 13 view has the strongest measured flower-colour signal among this sample's seven clear dates.
The Camrose station recorded 23.9 mm and 19.1 mm on these two days. That can trigger a field-access check, but cannot tell whether a truck can enter a particular gate.
The next clear view came 18 days after July 13. It shows a lower signal, but cannot locate the date when the change happened. A grower or field-camera update could fill that gap.
Why start with canola?
Canola is central to Alberta beekeeping and a large source of bee forage and pollination work. Alberta's Pollination Group ↗ describes many colonies moving by truck to canola fields. An industry bloom guide ↗ makes an important point for any image-based tool: the proportion of flowers that have bloomed is not the same as how yellow a field looks from above.
Get a canola field boundary and a few dated on-site bloom observations with permission, then compare them with the satellite and weather sequence. Ask the beekeeper what move they are planning so the report answers that decision.
What would have helped your crew?
Tell us which field update you wish you had received earlier before moving bees to or from canola.
Email Bee GPS ↗Source note: This replay uses a checked snapshot of 2025 public records. “Field 1” is our label for a Camrose-area research sample, not a mapped commercial bee site. This page is not a live bloom or truck-access report. Crop map · Satellite source · Weather source.