Canadian Bee Gut Project, microbiome research, overwintering success, domestic vs imported stock.
Every spring, Canadian beekeepers wait for queens. That sentence sounds simple, but it explains a major weakness in the way our beekeeping system works. A colony needs a queen to build population, replace winter losses, produce workers, and prepare for the season ahead. But in Canada, our climate does not produce enough early mated queens […]
Queen Bees, Imports, and Overwintering in Ontario: A Practical 2026 Outlook for Beekeepers
The Queen Is the Winter Plan: A Practical Ontario Beekeeper’s Outlook on Queens, Imports, Nucs, and Overwintering If you keep bees in Ontario, sooner or later you learn that winter does not kill colonies by itself. Winter exposes every weakness that was already there. A colony that goes into winter with a poor queen, high […]
Beekeeping Trends in Ontario for 2026: A Look at What New and Experienced Beekeepers Need to Know
Ontario is still a good place to become a beekeeper, but the learning curve has changed. A new beekeeper entering the field in 2026 is not stepping into the same industry that existed twenty years ago. The bees are the same species, but the pressures around them are heavier: Varroa mites, viruses, queen failure, unstable […]
Robber Bees and Nectar Dearth: What a Canadian Honey-Shop “Heist” Teaches Beekeepers
In late summer 2025, a strange bee story made national and international news: thousands of “robber bees” invaded a honey shop in Terrace, British Columbia, looking for food. The shop belonged to Christine McDonald of Rushing River Apiaries. According to reporting in The Guardian, McDonald entered her shop to find it filled with bees after […]
Canada and Ontario Invest $1.7 Million in Honey Bee Health: What It Means for Ontario Beekeepers
In 2025, the governments of Canada and Ontario invested more than $1.7 million through the Honey Bee Health Initiative to help Ontario beekeepers protect and strengthen their colonies against disease, pests, and weather-related threats. The funding supported 206 beekeeper businesses and 334 individual projects across the province. That is not just a government funding announcement. […]
Ontario Winter Losses Improved, but Remained High
Ontario’s 2025 winter-loss numbers brought some relief, but not comfort. After the severe losses reported for the 2023–2024 winter, Ontario beekeepers saw improvement during the 2024–2025 season. The province’s official apiculture winter loss report estimated 37% overwinter mortality for commercial beekeepers, down from 50% the year before. Small-scale beekeepers were estimated at approximately 43% winter […]
Why Beekeeping Is Getting Harder in Ontario
Beekeeping in Ontario is rewarding, but it is not passive. A healthy hive is a living biological system, and today’s beekeeper has to understand more than honey. You are managing insects, weather, parasites, nutrition, queen health, seasonal timing, and the local environment all at once. That may sound like a lot, but it is also […]
Ontario’s $28 Million Beekeeping Sector: Why Local Honey Is More Than a Jar on the Shelf
Ontario beekeeping is often treated like a small rural sideline: a few hives, a few jars of honey, a table at the market, and a nice story about pollinators. That picture is too small. In 2024, Ontario had more than 4,000 registered beekeepers generating about $28 million in farm-gate sales. Ontario was also Canada’s fourth-largest […]
A Closer Look at Michael Barber’s Beekeeping Work in Guelph
Michael Barber has spent more than a decade working directly with honey bees in the Guelph area. As the founder of Tri-City Bee Rescue, he has built his experience through hands-on hive care, colony management, swarm response, and practical beekeeping across changing Ontario seasons. His work offers a clear look at what real beekeeping involves. […]
Guelph beekeeper called to help with Burlington bee emergency
When Michael Barber got the call from Halton Police on a Wednesday morning in August 2023, he did not know exactly what he was heading into. All he knew was that there had been a serious bee-related emergency on Guelph Line in Burlington, and help was needed quickly. A trailer carrying honey bee hives had […]