Hive of Knowledge: Paul Kelly’s Impact on Ontario Beekeeping
Honeybees are called “social” creatures, and the same could be said for the community that research technician Paul Kelly cultivates at the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre (HBRC).
This enthusiastic community is instrumental in training future beekeepers and business owners, here in Ontario and around the world.
Kelly, a 37-year veteran of the HBRC and an inductee into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame, ensures that investigators have the hives they need to conduct future-focused pollinator research – a lifeline to our local food supply.
“I manage the bees and the people at the HBRC,” says Kelly. That means overseeing 300 to 500 hives and coordinating dozens of volunteers, students and future beekeepers, as well as ensuring that knowledge reaches industry.
While Ontario’s more than 100,000 “working” honey bee colonies made 5.8 million pounds of natural honey (worth $280 million) in 2024, their main value is as pollinators of fruit, berries, vegetables and some field crops.
“The range of activities we do here is unique in a university environment – managing a research and education centre, an active farm and a retail operation,” Kelly says.
Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Lead photo: The Honey Bee Research Centre brings together volunteers, future beekeepers, staff and students for field research and education.
Paul Kelly, Research Technician at the Honey Bee Research Centre
Research focuses on productivity and local challenges
“We really focus on Ontario,” says Kelly. “But beekeeping and bee issues are global. What sets us apart is that we’ve been doing this for so long and we have a large-scale research beekeeping operation, which allows us to do field research and bee breeding projects.”
U of G research has changed honeybee and hive management practices in Canada and around the world – a tradition that Kelly continues by prioritizing knowledge mobilization with the industry.
Among the greatest impacts of HBRC research are the following:
- Development of methods used by industry to keep bees indoors over winter
- Development of pollen collection methods used around the world
- Invention of a process for creaming honey to prevent fermentation
- Reduction of the deadly varroa mite 10-fold over susceptible colonies. The pertinent breeding work, which began with PhD student research, is a required method for membership in the Ontario Honey Bee Resistance Selection program.
Research assistant Muhammad Sarma records foraging behavior in a research colony
Kelly is most proud of the centre’s work in rearing queens and in bee breeding:
Tracheal mites became a major pest of honeybees in the United States in the 1980s, causing extensive colony losses.
“Very early on, we did research on breeding bees for resistance to tracheal mite. It was poised to be a very big problem,” says Kelly.
In a key step in 1990, the centre imported Buckfast queens, a mite-resistant strain of honeybee developed in England by Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey.
“There was enough genetic diversity around here that we would have developed resistance independently, but we shortened that to two years,” he says. “We saved beekeepers years of losses.”
Tracheal mite is not a problem in Ontario today, which Kelly considers a 100-per-cent success for the whole beekeeping community.
Queen bees necessary to start new hives are often imported to Ontario.
When bee imports from the United States were halted in 1990, says Kelly, “we had to learn how to breed and raise queens. We’ve figured out ways to raise high-quality queens while breeding in the right genetics.”
“Our goal is to create as much self-sufficiency in Ontario as we can.”
Training future beekeepers
- Up to 20
- seasonal workers
- 10M YouTube views
- in English, or 30M including translations
- Up to 4
- interning “bee veterinarians” work alongside U of G grad students to double capacity
Building beekeeping skills is not just for academics. The centre hosts up to 20 seasonal workers including up to a dozen volunteers, and several visiting students, many of whom go on to government and industry careers.
Aspiring beekeepers can take a weekend course to gain skills needed for hobby or professional beekeeping. About one-third of the students take the course with a career goal in mind, Kelly says.
Thanks to new video technology, that training is now available remotely.
“I get contacted all the time by people around the world who say our techniques have helped them build their businesses,” he says. “Seventy-seven videos are now viewed all over the world thanks to YouTube. Our channel has 10 million views in English.”
Nurturing people – and bees
How does Kelly stay so engaged in this field after some four decades?
“It’s the community atmosphere that we’ve built here that tops the list. It’s so rewarding to have people come along and see them contribute to the program and then go on to work with us in other capacities.”
Besides the people, he adds, “Of course, the bees are up there, too.”
Support from the Alliance
Kelly’s position is funded by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and the University of Guelph.
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Maintaining hives at the Honey Bee Research Centre
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