Jonny deMatos

Jonny deMatos

Queen Bee breeding in Canada

Spending four years in the military really made Jonny deMatos appreciate his farming background. He’d moved to Western Canada when he was in the military, met his wife Sydney from British Columbia, and he wanted to get back into agriculture. But the price of land and the costs associated with starting from scratch meant that the dream was initially out of their reach. He took his first beekeeping course in British Columbia in 2016. They started with a few hives — and quickly became acquainted with the local wildlife when a bear took out most of their hives in search of the honey! When they moved to Ontario, they expanded their business to about 200 hives, and then got into the business of breeding queen bees. They produce about 100 queen bees per week, and send them to beekeepers across Canada. Just as with what is being done with other livestock types, they’re trying to produce queen bees that have better genetics than the generations before them which, in turn, make for healthier populations in the hives. Jonny’s favourite thing is to check a mating hive after a couple of weeks, and see that a queen within has mated properly and is surrounded by a healthy batch of eggs. He said, “That’s always a little bit like Christmas!”