For that pound, they will have visited about two million flowers and flown more than 55,000 miles. Individual honeybees make 25 trips a day, visiting more than 1,000 flowers. They're evaluating products for the control of tracheal mites and selecting lines or strains of bees showing tolerance to varroa mites. Universities, colleges and provincial departments of agriculture also make important contributions to both beekeeping and pollination research. In most provinces, the beekeeping industry is served by provincial apiculturists who are responsible for the registration of beekeepers, bee health, management practices and any other issues affecting beekeepers.
Canadian honey is recognized worldwide to be of the highest quality.
Vast expanses of canola, clover and alfalfa provide foraging for bees and results in a mild, white honey that is sold at premium prices to more than 30 countries. The outlook for honey production in Canada is promising with large increases in canola production adding to the foraging area for bees. The Canadian honeybee industry is almost totally self-sufficient, however, it imports, under permit, about 100,000 to 150,000 queen bees each year from Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia. The Canadian border has been closed to honeybee imports from the continental United States since 1987, when a pest called the varroa parasitic mite was first detected. Some provinces also regulate transport of honeybees to prevent the spread of the mite.