Optimization of Honey Bee Queen Production Practices for Greater Productivity, Performance and Profitability

Honey bees are known to be responsible for one in every three bites of food we take. The queen bee plays a basic role in the honey bee colony. She is the mother of all members of the colony that develop during her life. She also plays a critically important role within the honey bee colony. In much of Canada, beekeepers rely on importing mated honey bee queens to make increases and replace winter killed colonies. In 2021 over 260,000 queens were imported mainly from the USA to support maintaining the 810,000 colonies kept in Canada. Unlike the rest of Canada, Saskatchewan beekeepers have been very progressive in producing their own honey bee queens and replacement colonies. Central to the success of making new healthy colonies is a quality queen. This project is focused on defining, developing, an improved process for producing high quality bee queens in Saskatchewan. This project will not only promote collaboration among sectors, but also within the beekeeping industry members. It will also provide an opportunity to post-secondary students to integrate learning and professional and field skills to enhance their exposure and experience to be prepared for a real working environment with the beekeeping industry. High quality produced queens will enable beekeepers to keep healthy bees, decrease reliance on imports, reduce the cost of production, and enhance crop pollination and food security.

Faculty Supervisor:

Susan Blum;David Halstead;Scott Lipsit

Student:

Partner:

Saskatchewan Beekeeper's Development Commission

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Sustainability & the Environment; Life Sciences (not health)

University:

Saskatchewan Polytechnic

Program: