Queen Breeding & Why Your Bee Hives are Dying

by Tiff Willson May 19, 2025

At Bow to the Bee, we support natural beekeeping and natural beekeeping only. 70% of bees managed by commercial beekeepers and backyard beekeepers bees died. 80% of natural beekeepers bees have survived in 2025.

A large amount of queens are purchased by commercial beekeepers. Did you know Kona Queens on Big Island ships out 500,000 Queens per year to the United States! Where is the biodiversity? These 500,000 Queens are mainly clones of one another.

Here are six reasons why breeding queen bees by humans (often called artificial queen rearing) is not the sustainable way forward to protect the bees.

1. Loss of Genetic Diversity

Issue: When humans selectively breed queens, they often choose a few favored traits (e.g. gentleness, honey production, disease resistance).
Risk: This narrows the genetic pool, making bees more vulnerable to disease, pests (like Varroa mites), and environmental changes.

2. Inbreeding and Weak Colonies

Issue: Controlled mating can lead to inbreeding if drones (male bees) come from a small population.
Consequence: Inbred queens can produce weak offspring or fail to thrive, leading to colony collapse.

3. Disruption of Natural Selection

Issue: In the wild, only the strongest queens survive the mating process and become colony leaders.
Impact: Artificial breeding may bypass this, allowing less-fit queens to propagate.

4. Overemphasis on Human-Desirable Traits

Example: Breeding for docility may lead to bees that are easier to manage but less effective in defending themselves or adapting to wild conditions.
Outcome: This can weaken bee populations over time.

5. Dependency on Human Intervention

Concern: Over time, bees may lose some of their natural instincts for survival (like swarming or foraging diversity) because they’re not being selected for those traits anymore.
Result: Colonies may become more dependent on beekeepers to survive.

6. Commercial Motives Can Undermine Ecological Health

Reality: Some large-scale operations prioritize quantity over quality.
Problem: Mass production of queens can lead to poorly mated queens, disease spread, and weak colonies being sold to hobbyists or commercial beekeepers.

Conclusion

We at Bow to the Bee do NOT support artificial queen rearing. 80% of natural

If you're considering supporting beekeeping, look for practices that emphasize:

Genetic diversity
Local adaptation
Disease resistance from natural traits
Sustainable management over mass production