In Canada, the cold climate poses challenges for beekeepers, as evidenced by a 2025 report revealing a significant failure rate of over 41% among honeybee colonies in Alberta during that winter. To address this issue, Beekeeping Innovations Ltd., based in the Calgary area, has introduced a groundbreaking solution known as the Bee Cube. This innovative apiary features a fully climate-controlled environment capable of accommodating multiple honeybee colonies and was developed in Okotoks.
Herman Van Reekum, the founder and CEO of the company, emphasized the Bee Cube’s primary objective of ensuring bees’ survival through the winter in a comfortable setting. Additionally, the Bee Cube offers a unique opportunity to revolutionize Canada’s beekeeping sector by facilitating the production of queens in a safe and cost-effective manner.
Van Reekum highlighted the significance of generating queens on a large scale to eliminate the need for importing them into Canada. Currently, Canadian beekeepers heavily rely on importing foreign queen bees, with approximately 300,000 queens imported annually from warmer regions like Australia, New Zealand, and certain U.S. states such as California and Hawaii.
Importing foreign bees not only presents challenges in adapting to a new environment but also carries the risk of introducing harmful pests like varroa mites, which have caused widespread devastation to honeybee colonies globally. Van Reekum warned about the potential threat posed by the Tropilaelaps mite, which, although not established in North America, has been detected in honeybee colonies in Asia, Europe, and Africa.
By breeding local queens, Canadian beekeepers can reduce mite infection rates and produce bees with genetic resilience to survive the harsh Canadian winters. The process of creating queens involves selecting a larva in a hive and feeding it royal jelly to develop into a queen bee, the only bee capable of laying eggs in a colony.
To expand queen production, beekeepers such as Nazar Pukshyn insert queen cells from one hive into a queenless colony, where the larvae are accepted and develop into queens over approximately two weeks. These newly emerged queens are then individually caged to prevent them from eliminating each other until they can mate with drone bees and establish their own hives.
Van Reekum emphasized the importance of nurturing resilient queen bees that can pass on strong genes to future generations, ultimately enhancing the survival chances of bee colonies during Canadian winters. Last year, Beekeeping Innovations Ltd. produced around 800 queens and aims to increase production to 5,000 queens this year.
Alberta stands out as Canada’s primary honey producer, hosting nearly 40% of the country’s bee colonies, making it the leading honey producer in the nation. The honey industry in Canada, valued at $241 million in 2025, plays a vital role not only in honey production but also in providing essential pollination services to farmers, contributing significantly to the agricultural economy.
Van Reekum stressed the critical role of bees in pollinating crops, highlighting that approximately one-third of the food consumed by humans depends on bees for pollination. Bees play a crucial role in pollinating various crops such as canola, orchards, and blueberries, without which many food sources would not be available.
In conclusion, the innovative solutions offered by companies like Beekeeping Innovations Ltd. are instrumental in revolutionizing the beekeeping industry in Canada, ensuring the sustainability and resilience of honeybee populations in the face of environmental challenges.