Dynamics of queen demand and supply in Canada.

The Canadian beekeeping industry depends heavily on the importation of queens and packaged bees. In 2018, over 250,000 queens were imported, and this dependency has risks including the importation of new pathogens and the potential deterioration of queen quality from their long-distance transport. One risk factor in transport is the exposure to high and low temperatures that reduces the viability of the sperm stored in their spermathecae and alters protein expression in the queen’s ovaries.

We have compared local and imported queens and observed that overall imported queens showed reduced sperm viability compared with locally produced queens. A decrease in sperm viability in queens can in turn result in decreased colony performance.

Several approaches may be considered to increase the quality of queens used in Canadian operations including a) developing methods to reduce the exposure of queens to temperature extremes during transport, b) increasing the Canadian queen supply to reduce the current dependency on imports, and c) establishing breeding selection programs to breed for stronger, disease-resistant stock.

One challenge with increasing the Canadian queen supply is the short duration of local breeding season, added to the perceived need for queens early in the year before they can be produced in Canada. This timing gap may be addressed by a modification of the beekeeping management strategy and replacing queens later in the season or by overwintering of queens or nucleus colonies to increase the local supply of queens early in the season. Results from surveying Canadian beekeepers and bee breeders, provincial apiculturists, and technology transfer team members showed beekeeper perspectives on breeding, the value of adopting new breeding tools to create stronger, more disease-resistant stock, and the desire to minimize risks associated with mass importations. A multifaceted strategy to increase the supply of local queens and reduce the risk factors for imported queens will be discussed.