No two of the world’s major beekeeping regions handle live bee and used-equipment imports the same way: the U.S. allows queens and package bees from exactly two countries and bans used equipment outright from everywhere, the EU manages movement between member states through a shared certification system, the UK actively suspends imports from specific regions the moment a new pest outbreak is confirmed, and Australia’s own 2026 experience shows that even strict border rules don’t fully stop a pest from arriving by other routes. This site’s 22 existing country-by-country beekeeping law guides each cover one country’s domestic rules in full — none of them lines the import/biosecurity rules up side by side, which is the specific, genuinely useful comparison this article adds.
Key Takeaways
- The U.S. permits live adult queen and package bee imports from only Canada and New Zealand, requires a PPQ Form 526 permit and 10-day advance notice to APHIS, and bans used beekeeping equipment imports from every country without exception.
- The EU governs bee movement between member states under Regulation (EU) 2020/688, tracking four specific “Category D” diseases: Varroosis, small hive beetle, American foulbrood, and Tropilaelaps mites.
- The UK actively and specifically suspends imports region-by-region the moment a new outbreak is confirmed — as of June 2026, imports of bees, apiculture products, and used equipment are suspended from Lazio (Italy) and from Honduras, both due to confirmed small hive beetle outbreaks.
- Australia abandoned its varroa mite eradication effort in September 2023 and shifted to ongoing management; treatment-resistant varroa strains were confirmed in New South Wales and Queensland in January 2026, from a incursion genetically distinct from the original 2022 detection.
- Even Australia’s strict border biosecurity controls didn’t stop varroa from establishing — a real illustration that import rules reduce risk but don’t eliminate it, since a pest can also arrive by other pathways like ship stowaways.
Table of Contents
- United States: Two Approved Countries, No Used Equipment
- European Union: Shared Certification Between Member States
- United Kingdom: Live, Region-Specific Suspensions
- Australia: What Happens When Border Controls Aren’t Enough
- Canada: A Revealing Asymmetry With the US
- Side-by-Side Comparison
- Frequently Asked Questions
United States: Two Approved Countries, No Used Equipment
Under USDA APHIS rules, live adult queen honey bees and package bees may be imported into the continental United States (Hawaii is excluded) from exactly two countries: Canada and New Zealand. Importing requires a PPQ Form 526 permit application, and the exporter must have the shipment inspected within 10 days of shipping by the appropriate regulatory agency, producing a Honey Bee Export Certificate that must travel with the shipment; separately, the U.S. importer must notify APHIS headquarters 10 days before the shipment arrives, including consignee/consignor details and flight information. Several categories are barred outright regardless of source country: whole colonies in hive bodies can never be imported, honey bee brood from any country is restricted, and used beekeeping equipment cannot be imported from anywhere for use in beekeeping — a blanket rule with no country exception. Notably, importing queens and package bees specifically from Australia is prohibited under U.S. rules, a restriction that predates and is separate from Australia’s own 2022–2026 varroa situation described below.
The New Zealand shipping requirements specifically show how granular this gets in practice: shipments must arrive on a non-stop flight (no connections), packages must be labeled “live bees” in one-inch letters on every side, and the export certificate has to explicitly clear the shipment of specific named pathogens — Thai sacbrood virus, Tropilaelaps clareae, and Euvarroa sinhai — or any undesirable bee subspecies, any of which trigger automatic refusal at the border. Even pickup is regulated: an importer can’t simply meet the aircraft directly and has to arrange customs clearance and onward transport through a licensed broker.
A single approved-country list sounds simple on its face, but the actual mechanics — a named pathogen checklist, a non-stop-flight requirement, and mandatory broker pickup — are exactly the kind of granular detail that gets lost in a general “which countries can I import from” summary.
European Union: Shared Certification Between Member States
Movement of bees within the EU single market runs on a different model: rather than a small approved-country list, intra-community movement of bees is governed by Regulation (EU) 2020/688 (Articles 48–52), which requires an animal health certificate meeting the standards set in Regulation (EU) 2021/403 to accompany bees moved between member states. The EU system specifically tracks four bee diseases and pests designated “Category D”: Varroosis (varroa mite infestation), small hive beetle, American foulbrood, and Tropilaelaps mites — meaning a health certificate has to speak specifically to the shipment’s status on those four, not just a general clean bill of health. This is a materially different regulatory design than the U.S.’s short approved-country list: it assumes ongoing certified movement between many member states is normal, and manages risk through documentation and disease-specific certification rather than restricting the list of eligible source countries.
United Kingdom: Live, Region-Specific Suspensions
The UK’s approach is the most visibly reactive of the four: rather than a fixed list, Great Britain’s National Bee Unit actively suspends imports from specific regions as outbreaks are confirmed, and lifts or amends those suspensions as the situation changes. As of this writing, two real, current suspensions illustrate how this works: on 12 June 2026, the UK suspended imports of bees, apiculture products, and used beekeeping equipment from Lazio, Italy, after small hive beetle was confirmed there — a jump of more than 400 km from the beetle’s previously known southern Italian range in Calabria and Sicily, which the UK’s own veterinary notes flagged as suggesting long-distance human-assisted movement rather than natural spread. Separately, on 9 June 2026, the UK suspended the same categories of import from Honduras after that country reported its first-ever small hive beetle detection to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). Both suspensions remain in force until formally revoked or amended — there’s no fixed expiry date, which is itself a useful thing for an importer to understand about how UK bee-import restrictions actually function.
Australia: What Happens When Border Controls Aren’t Enough
Australia’s own recent history is the clearest real-world illustration of what strict import controls can and can’t achieve. Varroa mite was first detected in sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle, New South Wales, in June 2022, triggering a large-scale eradication response. In September 2023, after roughly 14 months of effort, authorities determined eradication was no longer achievable, and the response shifted to a national management program, which formally completed its two-year transition in February 2026. Then, in January 2026, a second and genetically distinct varroa incursion was confirmed in northern New South Wales, this one already showing pyrethroid treatment resistance — research from the NSW Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute confirmed it was a separate introduction from the 2022 detection, not a resistant mutation of the same population. Australia maintains strict biosecurity import conditions through its BICON system and runs a National Bee Pest Surveillance Program specifically watching for bee swarms that arrive as stowaways on ships at Australian ports — the exact non-import pathway that a formal border permit system can’t fully close off. The lesson generalizes well beyond Australia: import permit rules meaningfully reduce risk, but a pest that can travel by stowaway or unauthorized movement isn’t fully solved by border paperwork alone.
Canada: A Revealing Asymmetry With the US
Canada’s rules produce one of the more genuinely surprising comparisons in this whole picture. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) requires an import permit and a CFIA-recognized health certificate for any bee import, with the source apiary certified free of American foulbrood, European foulbrood, and varroa mites through an inspection within 90 days of export — and even the sugar or honey fed to bees in transit has to be either honey-free or irradiated, specifically to prevent disease transmission through feed. Queen bees are currently approved from eight source countries (with the large majority actually coming from California and Hawaii), while package bees are approved from five: Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ukraine, and Chile — meaning Canada permits package bees from Australia, a country the U.S. prohibits as a source entirely.
The most striking detail is Canada’s relationship with its own southern neighbor: general honey bee imports from the continental United States into Canada have been restricted since 1987 because of pest and disease concerns, with only individually hand-picked honey bee queens (not full packages) permitted since 2004. In other words, while the U.S. treats Canada as one of only two approved live-bee source countries in the world, Canada has spent nearly four decades treating the U.S. as a restricted source for anything beyond individually inspected queens — a real, asymmetric relationship that a single-country law guide would never surface.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Region | Approved live-bee sources | Used equipment | Key mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Canada and New Zealand only (queens/packages) | Banned from every country | PPQ 526 permit + 10-day pre-notice + export health certificate |
| European Union | Any member state, certified | Governed by same health-certificate system | Reg. 2020/688 + Reg. 2021/403 certification, 4 tracked Category D diseases |
| United Kingdom | Case-by-case, minus actively suspended regions | Included in region-specific suspensions | Live, reactive suspensions per outbreak (e.g., Lazio and Honduras, June 2026) |
| Australia | Tightly restricted under BICON | Restricted, case-by-case under BICON | Import conditions + active port-level swarm/stowaway surveillance |
| Canada | Queens from 8 countries; packages from 5 (incl. Australia) | Not addressed in general queen/package rules; permit-by-commodity | CFIA import permit + health certificate + 90-day disease-free apiary inspection |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I legally import a full bee colony into the US, EU, UK, or Australia?
Generally no. The U.S. bans whole hive-body colonies from every country outright; the EU, UK, and Australia all require certification and impose region- or disease-specific restrictions that make an uncertified colony import illegal in practice.
Why can’t the US import queens from Australia specifically?
U.S. rules prohibit queen and package bee imports from Australia as a matter of standing policy, separate from and predating Australia’s 2022–2026 varroa situation.
Does the EU require the same health certificate for every member state?
Yes — movement between EU member states uses the same Regulation 2021/403 certificate format and tracks the same four Category D diseases regardless of which two member states are involved.
How do UK import suspensions actually get lifted?
They remain in force until the National Bee Unit formally revokes or amends them, generally once the underlying outbreak is confirmed contained — there’s no automatic expiry date built into the suspension itself.
Did Australia’s border controls fail to stop varroa mite?
Not exactly — Australia’s own surveillance suggests the pest most likely arrived via a stowaway swarm on a ship rather than through an authorized import, which is a different failure point than the permit system itself; that’s exactly why Australia now runs active port-level swarm surveillance alongside its import rules.
Can Canadian beekeepers import bees from the US?
Only individually hand-picked queens, permitted since 2004; general honey bee imports from the continental U.S. into Canada have been restricted since 1987 over pest and disease concerns.
Can I import used beekeeping equipment anywhere?
Not into the U.S. under any circumstances. The EU, UK, and Australia all restrict or condition used-equipment imports similarly to live bees rather than treating equipment as exempt from biosecurity rules.
