Fertility Management in Pollinators: Queen Storage, Transport, and Reproductive Resilience in Apis mellifera Under Commercial and Environmental Stressors

As the only reproductive female in the colony, the honey bee queen (Apis mellifera) is essential to colony survival, productivity, and the sustainability of pollination services that underpin food security and global agriculture. The biological, physiological, molecular, and commercial elements that affect queen fertility throughout the commercial lifecycle, from mating and development to sperm storage, banking, transportation, and colony establishment, are examined in this review. According to available data, successful queen reproduction depends on effective mating, long-term sperm viability in the spermatheca, stable hormonal regulation, and adequate nutritional and environmental support. However, a number of interrelated stressors, including temperature changes during storage and transportation, confinement, inadequate nutrition, pesticides, pathogens, parasites, and climate-related pressures, can reduce sperm viability, impair ovarian function, and increase colony losses. Precision apiculture, cryopreservation, instrumental insemination, and omics-based biomarkers are examples of emerging technologies that offer promising techniques to enhance queen resilience and commercial management. However, there are still significant information gaps, especially in the areas of integrated multi-omics techniques across the commercial lifespan and standardized queen-quality evaluation. Future advancements are needed to preserve queen fertility and protect pollination services. This will require integrating reproductive physiology, biotechnology, and commercial management to build climate-resilient, biosecure, and sustainable systems.