The sweet scent of fresh-cut cedar drifted over the yard as Tibor Szabo, owner of Szabo Queens, inspected a shipping container loaded with red cedar planks.
“I am going to use these to build hives for hobby beekeepers,” said Szabo. “People want them to look good in their gardens.”
Public interest in honeybees has never been higher and demand for bee-related products, especially living queens and honeybee colonies, has been on the rise as well.
“There is a big hobby beekeeping movement,” said Szabo. “It is a growing passion for many people.”
Most of Szabo’s customers are from Ontario and Quebec but he has shipped bees to all parts of Canada and the United States. He recently shipped three queens to a researcher in the Yukon Territory.
He maintains around 1,200 small hives or “production nucs” for producing queens and colonies. This is his busiest time of year when he spends most of his days catching and caging queens from bee yards in neighbouring feral farm pastures.
“May and June were nuts,” he said. “I am worried about Canada Post going on strike.”
He ships bees by mail because most courier services will not ship insects or other living organisms
“They are in a nice secured wooden cage with a screen for fresh air,” said Szabo. “They are packed so they’ll have no issues for seven days. Any longer than seven days and I would start to worry.”
He started Szabo Queens in 1997 but earned his wings helping his father, Tibor Szabo Sr., an award-winning honeybee researcher.
“There are pictures of me as a little kid standing beside big hives,” said Szabo. “I got stung at a very young age.”
He was born in Guelph the third oldest of seven siblings.
“My family moved to Alberta when I was four years old,” said Szabo. “My dad got a job at the Beaver Lodge Research Station working for Agriculture Canada.”
Szabo studied horticulture at Olds College in Alberta and during his summers worked at the Beaver Lodge research station.
He moved back to Guelph in 1991 when his father was transferred to the University of Guelph.
“When I was young my father gave me advice,” said Szabo. “He said 'Tibby don’t do things for the money. Do it because you love it and if you love it you’ll be good at it and if you are good at it the money will find you.'”
Szabo welcomes any new business but recognizes that growing public interest in honeybees has largely been in response to Colony Collapse Disorder, a world-wide phenomenon that has led to dramatic declines in honeybees and other wild pollinators.
Bees are indicators of a greater effect that is happening in the environment,” said Szabo.
As president of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association, he has advocated for tighter regulations on the use of agricultural pesticides and applauds new restrictions introduced by the Ontario government this year.
“It is a very serious environmental crisis but it’s being addressed,” said Szabo. “You have to be hopeful when you are a beekeeper. It is part of the job."
Szabo Queens
Established: 1997
Founders: Tibor Szabo Sr. and Tibor Szabo Jr.
4722 Nassagaweya-Puslinch Townline
Moffat, Ontario
L0P 1J0
519 836-5617
www.honeybees.ca
