Spring Nucs and Queens Are Now Available — And Your Purchase Helps Beekeepers in Ethiopia

We’re thrilled to announce that Beekeeping Innovations Ltd. is offering spring nucleus colonies and queens for 2026. Whether you’re starting fresh, replacing winter losses, or expanding your operation, we’ve put together a strong offering this season and every purchase you make contributes to something bigger than your backyard.

About the Nucs

These are quality 5-frame nucs built on colonies overwintered in BC, sourced from an experienced beekeeper in Barrhead. Every nuc is ready to build quickly and hits the ground running with a proven queen.

Here’s what’s in each nuc:

• 5-frame nuc box

• 2–3 frames of brood at time of pickup

• Laying overwintered 2025 queen

• Well-provisioned with feed

• All mother hives treated before any splitting

• All nucs treated with oxalic acid (OA) before loading

No packages. No untested splits. Clean, treated, field-ready colonies.

Price

$360 per nuc

Availability

We’re releasing nucs in weekly batches starting the week of May 11. Here’s the plan:

Week of May 11 — 200–250 nucs (first release, limited availability)

Following weeks — ~250 nucs per week, subject to demand

Spots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. A deposit is required to hold your week. Don’t wait — the May 11 release will go fast.

Pick Up

Our yard is located in Foothills County, just north of the Millarville Racetrack. Exact

pickup details are confirmed with each reservation. Delivery may also be available

depending on your order quantity — just ask when you reserve.

How to Reserve

Head to beecube.io to place your deposit and choose your preferred pickup week. Once your deposit is in, we’ll confirm your date and send along everything you need for pickup day.

Questions? Reach us at info@beecube.io. We’re happy to help whether this is your first nuc or your fiftieth.

Queens Available Too

We’re also selling queens for 2026. If you’re requeening an existing colony or building

your own splits, visit albertarosequeens.ca to see availability and get yours reserved.

Giving Back: Our Ethiopia Project

Beekeeping has the power to transform lives and we believe that goes well beyond our own backyards here in Alberta. That's why a portion of every nuc and queen sale this season will go toward our ongoing project in Ethiopia, where we work alongside local beekeepers to support modernizing beekeeping practices that improve livelihoods and strengthen communities.

When you buy a nuc from us, you’re not just starting your season strong you’re

helping a beekeeper on the other side of the world do the same.

We’ll be sharing updates from the Ethiopia project throughout the season. Thank you for being part of it.

Reserve Your NUC

Visit beecube.io to secure your spot before the May 11 release sells out.

Beekeeping Innovations Ltd.

Foothills County, Alberta

beecube.io | info@beecube.io

albertarosequeens.ca

beekeepinginnovations.ca

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Podcast: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity

I had the pleasure of appearing on Ron Miksha’s podcast this week. Ron is a veteran

beekeeper and author. His book ‘Bad Beekeeping’ is the best book about being a

beekeeper that I’ve read. Ron is based in Calgary, and his show is one of the most

thoughtful corners of the beekeeping world. If you haven't listened yet, I'd highly recommend it.

What We Talked About

Our conversation ranged across three things I'm deeply passionate about right now:

The Bee Cube® our flagship product at Beekeeping Innovations. Ltd. We talked about why its design matters for hobbyists and commercial beekeepers, and what makes it different from traditional hives. We talked about the ability to use Bee Cubes® to make queens and nucleus colonies and why that’s an important part of helping to create a sustainable beekeeping industry in Canada.

Secondly, we talked about our new Be the Bee™ app that we are developing for

beekeepers to record and analyze their colony health and management data. Right

now, too much of what beekeepers know lives in notebooks or memory. Be the Bee™ is about giving that knowledge structure — so you can spot patterns, catch problems early, and make better decisions for your hives.

Finally, we discussed my Global Beekeeping Digest, the Substack newsletter that

rounds up the latest news and research from the world of bees and beekeeping.

Whether you're a commercial operator or a backyard hobbyist, the science is moving fast, and I try to make it accessible. Subscribe if you want to stay in the loop.

Give It a Listen

Ron is a fantastic host — curious, warm, and genuinely knowledgeable. It was one of

those conversations that felt less like an interview and more like two beekeepers talking over a cup of coffee.

Listen to Podcast

And while you're at it, subscribe, like, and follow the show. As Ron says himself: "We live or die by your adulation." You can find Ron on Apple Podcasts About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast

Going into Winter

Calgary was hit by a severe snowstorm this week, and we were grateful to have completed all of our winter preparations in the Bee Cubes® and traditional hives before it arrived. This season, we’re overwintering 7 Bee Cubes® and 20 traditional hives going into winter.

One of our Bee Cubes® houses our queen banking experiment, where we’re overwintering queen bees at scale. The remaining Bee Cubes® are being used to test different sensor and heating systems as part of our ongoing research into how technology can improve winter survival and overall hive health.

The Challenge of Canadian Winters

Honeybees are not native to Canada. The bees most commonly used here are Carniolan bees from Slovenia and Italian bees bred for the milder Mediterranean climate. Helping them survive a Canadian winter is an ongoing challenge especially given the persistent threat of Varroa mites, a parasite that is impossible to fully eradicate.

Winter losses in Canada often range between 30% and 50%, forcing beekeepers to rebuild their colonies each spring. To do so, many rely on imported bees from countries such as New Zealand and Australia.

A Turning Point for the Industry

This year, the Canadian beekeeping industry has taken a bold step by asking the federal government to ban bee imports from all countries except the United States. The reason: the emergence of a new and even more devastating parasite called Tropilaelaps, which is spreading internationally and poses a major biosecurity risk to Canadian hives.

Read more from the National Post

While this ban would help protect our bees from new diseases, it also means we must build our own domestic capacity to replace approximately 45,000 imported bee packages and 300,000 imported queens each year. Many of these queens currently come from Chile, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.

Testing for Varroa

The Role of the Bee Cube®

After two years of development, the Bee Cube® has proven to be a powerful tool for queen rearing and colony development. By controlling temperature, humidity, and ventilation inside the Cube, we can shield colonies from external weather fluctuations and help bees focus their energy on brood rearing and queen production.

We’re now working closely with government and industry partners to design a roadmap for a more self-sufficient, sustainable Canadian beekeeping sector, one that reduces our dependence on imported bees and supports the long-term health of honeybee populations across the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09jpHmm1f3g

In 2025, we successfully produced several hundred mated queens with the help of queen-rearing experts Natalia and Nazar Pukshyn, who brought their deep experience from Ukraine and Poland to our Alberta operations. Most queens were used in our own colonies, but many went to Alberta beekeepers who gave excellent feedback on performance and reliability.