In Canada, the harsh winter climate poses challenges for beekeepers, as evidenced by a 2025 report revealing that more than 41% of honeybee colonies in Alberta failed during that winter. To address this issue, Beekeeping Innovations Ltd., based in the Calgary area, has introduced a novel 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 CEO and founder of the company, emphasized the Bee Cube’s primary objective of providing bees with a comfortable environment to endure the winter successfully. Additionally, the Bee Cube offers a unique opportunity to revolutionize Canada’s beekeeping industry by enabling the efficient production of queens.
Van Reekum highlighted the significance of generating queens in large numbers within a secure and cost-effective system to eliminate the need for importing foreign queen bees, which Canadian beekeepers heavily rely on. By breeding local queens, the industry aims to establish a resilient stock that can adapt to the Canadian environment and mitigate the risks associated with importing bees, such as introducing harmful pests like varroa mites and potentially devastating Tropilaelaps mites.
The process of queen production involves selecting specific larvae and feeding them royal jelly to trigger their development into queen bees. These queens are crucial for colony survival as they are the only bees capable of laying eggs. To create more queens, queen cells are transferred to queenless colonies, allowing the bees to accept and nurture them until they emerge as adults. The emerging queens are then placed in individual cages to prevent aggression until they mate with drone bees and begin laying eggs to establish new colonies.
Van Reekum emphasized the importance of breeding local queens to enhance genetic resilience and survival rates during Canadian winters. The company aims to significantly increase queen production, from 800 queens last year to a target of 5,000 queens this year.
Alberta stands as Canada’s largest honey producer, with nearly 40% of the country’s bee colonies located in the province. The honey industry in Canada plays a vital role not only in honey production but also in providing essential pollination services to farmers, contributing significantly to the agricultural economy.
In 2025, Canada’s honey harvest was valued at $241 million, underscoring the economic importance of beekeeping. Van Reekum emphasized the critical role of bees in pollinating crops, highlighting that 33% of the food we consume relies on bees for pollination, including canola, orchards, and blueberries. The contribution of honeybees to pollination is essential for sustaining agricultural production and ensuring food availability.