Conservative estimates based on Statistics Canada reports, suggest that our country will import greater than a quarter of a million honey bee queens this coming beekeeping season. This represents millions of dollars lost to our industry (value of imports in 2024 between $10 – 12 million). The challenges of beekeeping in a Canadian climate are unique, and it is unlikely that the reliance on offshore queens will be eliminated but there are opportunities for expanding our current queen production. Let us have a look at some interesting facts about queen production in the Maritime region.
Opportunities for Queen Production!
Overall, the number of queens imported into the Maritime
region from other countries and Canadian provinces is relatively low. With approximately 5% of Canada’s honey bees
in the three Maritime provinces, only around 2% of Canada’s imported queens are
brought into this region. Requirements
in the region to import queens reflects the unsuitable climate for raising
early queens and the demands of wild blueberry pollination. Therefor the reason
that the majority of queens are imported in early spring is in order for
beekeepers to prepare their colonies for wild blueberry pollination. So, there are essentially two cohorts of
queens, the early queens (prior to wild blueberry pollination) and the later
queens (after wild blueberry pollination) needed by Maritime beekeepers.
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| Queen Retinue (ATTTA©2026) |
The climate of Canada makes producing early season queens difficult
using conventional production practices.
Good queen producers have methods of forcing the queens and drones,
which are necessary for mating, to begin artificially early but overall there
are ultimate climatic restrictions on queen production. Some alternatives to conventional production,
that are emerging, include overwintering nucleus colonies and queen
banking. Previously, it was believed
that outdoor overwintering of queen banks in the Maritime region was unviable. After ATTTA successfully demonstrated outdoor
overwintering , there is renewed interest in developing this practice as a
positive step towards self reliance.
There are also systems being developed by researchers based in Quebec for indoor over wintering queen banks1.
These practices, along with overwintering nucleus colonies are showing great
potential to progress the industry.
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| Queen working (ATTTA©2025) |
Overall, the pattern is that later queen demand (after wild
blueberry pollination) is met with local production and imports of Canadian
queens. Imports from Ontario, Quebec and
other provinces into the Maritimes are increasing. There was a significant jump in Canadian
imports in NB last season (approx. 2200 queens). NS and PEI combined are
averaging less than 1000 imported Canadian queens per season but last year
(2025) NS alone almost met that average with over 800 queens imported from
other Canadian provinces.
Within the region, queen production has often focused on
operations meeting their internal need for replacements and then selling any excess. This is also changing, with a small group of
newer beekeepers developing a queen production enterprise within their overall
beekeeping operation. In the last couple
of seasons, there are examples to be found of beekeepers producing a modest
number of queens for sale but with aspirations to expand. The industry has supported these operations
through training provided by ATTTA and this has been the starting point for
these beekeepers to develop as queen producers.
There is an expanding demand for local queens. Beekeepers know, and research demonstrates,
that local queens, adapted to the local climate, are best2,3. What
is required of queens for the Maritime region is also unique. Bees must build early to have adequate
populations for wild blueberry pollination and adapted to a short, cold-climate
season. These traits can be selected for
by local producers.
There is demand in the industry for beekeeping operations in
each Maritime province to diversify into significant queen production. The current producers are not meeting all the
request for queens locally. Other tools,
like overwintering strategies, queen banking, technological advancements, will
also reduce our reliance on imported queens.
Sector resilience will be supported by local queen production!
To find out more about opportunities for queen production
and how to begin making your own queens, join ATTTA and local, Nova Scotia
queen producer Jonny de Matos, at our first winter workshop on 24 November. A link to attend this online webinar will be
shared through your provincial association.
1. 1. Lamothe Boudreau, M. and Giovenazzo, P., 2026.
Physiological qualities of honey bee queens (Apis mellifera) overwintered in
banks. Journal of Apicultural Research, 65(1), pp.145-157.
2.
2. Walsh, E.
and Rangel, J., 2016. Local honey bee queen production and quality. Bee World,
93(2), pp.30-32.
3. 3. Holmes, L.A., Ovinge, L.P., Kearns, J.D.,
Ibrahim, A., Wolf Veiga, P., Guarna, M.M., Pernal, S.F. and Hoover, S.E., 2023.
Queen quality, performance, and winter survival of imported and domestic honey
bee queen stocks. Scientific Reports, 13(1), p.17273.
N.B. numeric data was obtained through Statistics Canada (https://www.statcan.gc.ca/), Nova Scotia Government's Open Data Portal (https://data.novascotia.ca/), public reporting by provincial apiculturists and personal correspondence.
Connecting with ATTTA Specialists
If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:
visit our website at: https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
Email: attta@perennia.ca
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