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Honey Bee Queen Research
Photo credit: Vivian Butz Huryn
Photo Credit: Matthew Polinsky
Photo credit: Mischa Chandler
A non-invasive method for profiling the gut microbiome and virome of honey bee queens~ 2026
The authors present a novel, non-invasive method for collecting feces from queen honey bees and demonstrate its potential as a powerful tool for profiling the gut microbiome, detecting stressor exposure, and screening for viral infections.
Elevated viral infection of honey bee queens affects the colony's social structure~ 2025
Physiological qualities of honey bee queens overwintered in banks~ 2025
These results demonstrate that virus-induced reproductive decline disrupts pheromone signaling, revealing a plausible mechanistic pathway by which pathogens can erode social cohesion.
This study shows that overwintering queens in banks of 40 does not have a significant impact on their nutritional and reproductive physiological parameters or overall performance in colonies.
Queen honey bee survival and colony performance after overwintering mated queens indoors~ 2025
The effect of major abiotic stressors on honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens and potential impact on their progeny, 2024
Here, the authors review the current knowledge regarding the effects of major abiotic stressors (namely, nutrition, pesticides, and extreme temperatures) on queen health and their potential impacts on the queen’s progeny. Gaining insight into the effects of these factors across individual and colony levels is vital for prioritizing further research on queen and colony health.
Sustainable Honey Bee Breeding: A Scientific Guide for Future Beekeeping~ 2025
This book is the result of collaborative efforts which have taken place over the past 20 years within the COLOSS network, when the factor “bee origin” was first put into the equation of factors involved in colony losses. It aims to provide beekeepers, apicultural students, and beekeeping enthusiasts with the scientific background necessary to understand these new ideas, so that future beekeeping may be based on existing “local” bee genotypes which can then be improved by selective breeding.
The effect of major abiotic stressors on honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens and potential impact on their progeny~ 2025
The authors review the current knowledge regarding the effects of major abiotic stressors (namely, nutrition, pesticides, and extreme temperatures) on queen health and their potential impacts on the queen’s progeny. Gaining insight into the effects of these factors across individual and colony levels is vital for prioritizing further research on queen and colony health.
Requeening queenright honey bee colonies with queen cells in honey supers~ 2023
Our results show that new queens successfully supersede original queens in 6% of queenright colonies, suggesting that the practice does not result in the new queen taking over leadership in most colonies. Additionally, supersedure by daughter queens is more common (13%) than new queen supersedure when introducing queen cells to queenright colonies during a honey flow.
Requeening queenright honey bee colonies with queen cells in honey supers, 2023
Queen quality, performance, and winter survival of imported and domestic honey bee queen stocks~ 2023
Colony performance over a two-year field study suggests: (1) brood pattern solidness has a positive nonlinear correlation with honey production regardless of queen stock and environment; (2) environment (i.e., apiary location) and queen stock variably predict colony health and productivity depending on year; (3) high clinical symptoms of chalkbrood may explain the prevalence of poor brood patterns in colonies headed by queens from New Zealand; (4) domestic queens are 25% more likely to survive winter in Alberta than imported queens.
Impacts of indoor mass storage of two densities of honey bee queens (Apis mellifera) during winter on queen survival, reproductive quality and colony performance~ 2022
After several days in nucleus colonies, queens from banks had regained a size and weight similar to that of queens overwintered normally, suggesting that they could perform well over a complete beekeeping season. This study achieved promising results and highlights the potential of this technique for the beekeeping industry in Canada and worldwide.
Genetic Progress Achieved during 10 Years of Selective Breeding for Honey bee Traits of Interest to the Beekeeping Industry~ 2021
Genetic improvement programs have resulted in spectacular productivity gains for most animal species in recent years. The introduction of quantitative genetics and the use of statistical models have played a fundamental role in achieving these advances. These advances have opened a new era for our breeding program and making these superior genetics available to beekeepers will contribute to the sustainability and self-sufficiency of the beekeeping industry in Canada.
Canadian queen production case study, 2020
The costs of queen production are presented for three Canadian operations over two years. The results show that it can be profitable for a beekeeping operation in Canada to produce queen cells and mated queens and could be one viable strategy to increase the sustainability of the Canadian beekeeping industry.
Effect of shipping boxes, attendant bees, and temperature on honey bee queen sperm quality (Apis mellifera)~ 2020
Our results show that both low and high temperatures significantly decrease sperm viability, and that the addition of loose attendant bees within shipment boxes helps maintain the temperature at 26 °C when exposed to low temperatures and delays when temperatures are high.
Covid-19 affected queen bee importations into Canada~ 2020
The economic and agricultural impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed a vulnerability within Canada’s beekeeping industry stemming from its dependency on imported labor and bees. Travel disruptions and border closures pose an ongoing threat to Canadian agriculture and apiculture in 2021 and highlight the need for Canada’s beekeeping industry to strengthen domestic supply chains to minimize future risks.
Canadian queen production case study~ 2020
The costs of queen production are presented for three Canadian operations over two years. The results show that it can be profitable for a beekeeping operation in Canada to produce queen cells and mated queens and could be one viable strategy to increase the sustainability of the Canadian beekeeping industry.