In an average winter Canada loses more than a quarter of its honey bee colonies - and in four of the last five winters, a third or more. Every spring beekeepers rebuild, and in most years the country ends up with more bees than it started with. Four narrated stories, all from public data.
A Year in the Hive
What happens to Canada's honey bees in one year?
1,000 living colonies1,000 lost over winterqueens flying inpackage beeshoney shipped out
OctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSep
The year so far
All nine provinces
Live data board
Every province, month by month
Updates as the year plays. Click a row to spotlight that province. Fall and winter: CAPA; summer colonies and honey: Statistics Canada.
Key
What you're looking at
Burlington, Ontario. Placeholder Their own hive count goes here when they send it. Their site says their bees pollinate 32,000 acres in Ontario.
Show the full table - the year in the hive, by province
100 Years of Bees
How did Canada's bees get from there to here?
19241950197520002025
From hobby to business, and back
The beekeeper race
Bubble size = colonies. Click a bubble to follow a province.
The great migration west
Where Canada's colonies are
Data
The numbers for 2025
Click a column to sort. Change vs ten years earlier.
Milestones
Jump to a moment
About this measure
Burlington, Ontario. Placeholder Their own hive count goes here.
Show the full table - every measure, by province, for the chosen year
Bees on the Move
Where do Canada's new queens come from, and where does its honey go?
202020212022202320242025
Show
Queens flown in
Every queen, by country
2025 queen imports are under review by Statistics Canada.
Honey in and out
The honey seesaw
Data
Top partners, 2024
Queens by number, package bees in kg, honey in tonnes. Hover a row to light it up on the map; click to fly there.
Why import bees?
Replacing winter losses, fast
Key
How to read the map
Each moving mark is a fixed amount: a blue bee is 2,500 queens, a blue box is 400 kg of package bees, and a honey drop is 80 tonnes of honey (hollow when it is coming in). Each country is drawn at one point inside it; Canada at one point in the Prairie farm belt, where most colonies are. "Other countries" in the tables aren't drawn.
Show the full table - trade with each country for the chosen year
Winter Losses
How many colonies die each winter - and where?
Share of colonies that didn't survive winter, Canada
Click any winter to map it
Every province, every winter
Twenty winters at a glance
Darker = more colonies lost. Click a cell, a province or a year.
Make a guess
Out of every 10 colonies, how many didn't survive last winter?
Drag the slider or tap the hexagons. Grey ones didn't make it to spring.
Lose, replace, grow
The rebuild treadmill: colonies counted vs. colonies lost
Replaced since 2008
What beekeepers blamed
The top four suspected causes, winter 2023-24
Across ten provinces
How often each cause made the top four
Source: CAPA 2024 statement, Table 4. Beekeepers ranked the possible causes; provinces with ties are marked. Click a province name to highlight its causes.