A group of researchers at the University of Guelph believe they may have found the key to producing more resilient queen bees and it may have something to do with their gut health.

Just like in humans, a bee’s gut microbiome plays a central role in supporting digestion, immune regulation and warding off bad bacteria. Understanding that system could improve domestic honey bee and queen resilience.

“We’re trying to better understand how the microbiome impacts overwintering success,” Brendan Daisley, a postdoctoral fellow at the university told CBC News.

Daisley’s research is part of a larger initiative he started called the Canadian Bee Gut Project, where they work with beekeepers from across the country to profile the microbiome of honey bees through thousands of samples.

That work is now expanding to focus on domestic queen bees.

“Our research has found that the honey bee gut microbiome actually plays a critical role in resilience to these stressors and we believe it’s the missing piece to the puzzle and could really help the resilience of domestic Canadian honey bee stocks,” he said.

Canadian beekeepers depend on the arrival of up to 300,000 queen bees every year from countries like Italy, Chile and the United States to supplement domestic demand, according to Statistics Canada.

That’s because Canada has been dealing with a long-term sustainability problem where honey bee colonies have been dying at unsustainable rates for over a decade, Daisley said.

A 2025 report from the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists showed almost 40 per cent of colonies didn’t make it through the winter across the country.

Imported queens face challenges

To address those losses, Canada brings in new queen bees from different areas of the world, mostly from warmer climates, to establish or rebuild a colony, Daisley explained.

Many of those queens face challenges once they get here because they are not acclimatized to Canadian winters and conditions like domestic queens are.

“We bring them in and build a new colony, but that colony is now mismatched to Canada’s forage, pathogens and seasonal stressors,” Daisley said.

“Their genetics have evolved to be most suited to warmer climates so when they come here, their offspring, the worker bees, are not adapted to colder climates and to surviving the winter.”

Daisley said a lot of research has gone into the host genetics of honey bees, particularly in breeding programs, to help grow resiliency.

It’s part of the reason why the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association (OBA) encourages Ontario beekeepers to rely on domestic bees, said Melanie Kempers, general manager of the association.

She said bees that come from other parts of the world are more vulnerable to stress and often have weaker immune systems from traveling long distances, making recovery more challenging when they arrive.

Research may help mitigate colony losses

Kempers said keeping honey bees healthy has become a bigger challenge for beekeepers in recent years due to the loss of farm land and the introduction of new pests and diseases.

She said yearly colony losses not only impacts the sustainability of the industry, but also to our environment and food systems.

“We have less pollination happening and sustainability of our environment,” she said.

Research into bee gut microbiome is fairly new, she said, but Ontario beekeepers lost more than a third of their stock in 2025 and Kempers hopes it produces key information to help mitigate colony losses every year.

“Bees require, to get their essential amino acids, protein, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins – from their environment … if our environment is changing and we have less resources for them to get those essential components of their day to day, this research might help us to look toward supplementation,” she said, things like probiotics or prebiotics.

“Healthy support systems that we might be able to do as beekeepers to step in.”