Beekeeping app: what to look for when choosing
Eight questions to ask a beekeeping app before you enter your colonies. With a checklist to try out.
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A beekeeping app accompanies you for many years. Whether it suits you, you often only notice once three seasons of inspections are in it. So check before you start whether it works at the apiary, whether it covers your records and whether your data can always come with you. These eight criteria will help. Where it fits, we show with iBeekeeper as an example what an answer can look like.
1. Does the app work at the apiary without a network?
Many apiaries are at the edge of a forest, in an orchard or in a valley where the phone barely has reception. A beekeeping app that needs a connection there lets you down at exactly the wrong moment: you have the hive open, gloves on, and just want to quickly note what you saw.
So check what really works without a connection. Can you open a colony, create an inspection, change or delete an entry? And what happens afterwards: does the app sync the entries by itself as soon as there is reception again, or do you have to remember to do it?
Example iBeekeeper: In the Bienenvölker app for iPhone, iPad and Android you create colonies, enter inspections and edit or delete entries even without a connection. As soon as the device is back online, everything syncs in the background, including with the web application in the browser. Functions that need a server, such as the inspection with the assistant iBee, require a connection.
2. Does the hive card suit the way you manage your bees?
The hive card is the heart of every beekeeping app. It records what you see at each inspection: queen or eggs, brood, feed, colony strength, gentleness, swarming mood, varroa. Which entries you need depends on how you manage your bees. Someone who breeds rates differently from someone with three colonies in the garden, and a nuc needs different fields from a production colony.
Check whether you can create, hide and rename fields yourself, whether there are templates to start with and whether the whole history of a colony stays in one place over the years. A rigid hive card that you cannot adapt is one you will stop keeping after a few weeks.
Example iBeekeeper: You adapt the digital hive card yourself: your own fields, ready-made templates and colony groups such as nucs or production colonies, each group with its own form. Which actions are available as buttons at the colony is up to you. The Chronicle shows inspections, feedings, treatments and harvests for each colony on one timeline. How to build a hive card sensibly is covered in our guide Keeping a hive card.
3. Does the app cover your record-keeping obligation?
The hive card is voluntary. It is different with veterinary medicines: bees are used to obtain food, and anyone who treats them, for example against the varroa mite, must keep a record of the medicines used. The basis is Article 108 of Regulation (EU) 2019/6. The following must be recorded: the date of first administration, the name of the medicine, the amount administered, the name and address of the supplier, the proof of purchase, the animals or groups of animals treated, which for bees means the treated colonies, where applicable the name and contact details of the prescribing veterinarian, the withdrawal period, even if it is zero days, and the duration of treatment. The details must be kept available for inspection by the authorities for at least five years. In Germany, Section 2 of the ordinance on the use of veterinary medicines by animal keepers and on records (Tierhalter-Arzneimittelanwendungs- und Nachweisverordnung) also requires, for pharmacy-only medicines, among other things, the location of the animals, the receipt number and the name of the person who applied the medicine.
Check whether the app records each of these details for the treatment and creates from it a document you can present at an inspection. A treatment that is only free text on the hive card is rarely enough for this.
Example iBeekeeper: Your treatments produce the Medicine record book (Germany) as a PDF, per apiary and year, with batch, supplier, receipt, veterinarian, withdrawal period and applied by. Once a year is complete, you close it; after that, a treatment can only be changed with an amendment note. For Switzerland there are stock control and the inventory list of veterinary medicines. The reports as PDF are available with a package and during the trial period; the medicine record book, treatment journal and inventory list for another 90 days after the contract ends.
4. Where is your data stored?
A beekeeping app holds more personal information than you might think: your address for the medicine record book, the locations of your colonies, photos and voice notes. So read the privacy policy before you sign up. It must say who processes your data, in which country the servers are located and which service providers are involved. If the app uses artificial intelligence, it should also state where this analysis runs and whether you can switch it off or limit it.
Example iBeekeeper: Your beekeeping data is stored on servers in Germany that we rent from OVH GmbH in Cologne, photos, voice notes and documents in the object storage of OVHcloud in Germany. The AI functions of iBee run in an OVHcloud data center in France, so also within the European Union. Which of your data iBee may access, you decide yourself, area by area. All details are on the page Infrastructure.
5. Can you get to your data at any time?
Your records have grown over the years. They must not be trapped in an app that you eventually no longer want to use. In Article 20, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you the right to receive the personal data you have provided to a provider in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. Even so, check beforehand what this looks like in the app: is there an export that you trigger yourself? In which formats? Is it tied to a paid package? And conversely, can you take over existing hive cards from a spreadsheet?
Example iBeekeeper: You export your data as CSV, JSON or ZIP, even without a package. You can also create a backup of your data, with photos and documents if you wish, and output the hive cards of a colony as PDF. You import hive cards from CSV, XLS or XLSX files in the web application. More at Import, export and backup.
6. What does the app cost, and what happens afterwards?
Many beekeeping apps have a free starter package. What matters is the small print: does the free package expire after a few weeks? Does a trial automatically turn into a subscription? What does the price depend on: the number of colonies, users or features? And what happens to your entries if you stop paying?
Example iBeekeeper: iBeekeeper is free for good for up to 5 colonies, with no credit card; above that the price depends on the number of your colonies. After registration you can try the features of the paid packages for one month, and the trial period ends by itself. A package booked on the web does not renew automatically. When it ends, you fall back to the free package, and your data is kept. What exactly is free is described on the page Free beekeeping app, the packages on the pricing page.
7. Can several of you work with it?
Beekeeping is rarely done entirely alone: a partner helps with the inspection, the association looks after a shared apiary, sponsors want to see what their colony is doing. Check whether you can share colonies with others, whether you can set who may only view and who may also edit, and whether a share can be withdrawn later.
Example iBeekeeper: You share colonies, groups and apiaries with friends or with an organization, for viewing, for viewing and editing, or for full management. Sharing for viewing also works in the free package; editing rights you grant with a booked package. Sponsors receive a link to their colony, with a password and an expiry date if you wish. For associations there are community groups and presentation material; more on the page For associations and in the guide Beekeeping software for associations and commercial beekeepers.
8. Does the app run on your devices?
At the apiary you mostly use your phone; for analyses, the medicine record book and storage a large screen is more comfortable. Make sure the app exists for your phone, whether it also runs in the browser and whether the same data appears everywhere. If you are at home in several languages or work with beekeepers from other countries, also look at the interface languages.
Example iBeekeeper: The Bienenvölker app is available for iPhone and iPad in the App Store and for Android on Google Play, on the iPhone with an app for the Apple Watch. The web application in the browser is added to that. All of them use the same account, and the web application is available in 23 languages.
Checklist: how to test a beekeeping app in one week
- Put your phone in airplane mode, create an inspection and change it. Turn airplane mode off and check in the browser whether everything arrived.
- Build a hive card with the fields you keep on paper today. Is anything missing that you cannot add?
- Enter a treatment with batch, supplier and receipt and look at the document that results from it.
- Export your data and open the file. Do you recognize your entries?
- Read in the privacy policy where the servers are located.
- Work out the price for your current number of colonies and for double that.
- Share a colony with a second person and withdraw the share again.
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Start for freeFrequently asked questions
Which beekeeping app is the best?
The best beekeeping app is the one that suits how you work. Above all, check whether it works at the apiary without a network, whether you can adapt the hive card, whether it covers the records for veterinary medicines, where your data is stored and whether you can export it at any time. Test the app for a week with real inspections before you commit.
Do I even need an app as a hobby beekeeper?
A hive card is not required, but it helps you understand your colonies over the years. What is required is recording every treatment with veterinary medicines. That can be done on paper too. An app mainly saves you the copying: you make your entry at the colony, and the medicine record book is produced from the same entries.
Does the medicine record book have to be kept digitally?
No. Article 108 of Regulation (EU) 2019/6 specifies which details must be recorded and how long they must be kept available, not whether on paper or digitally. In Germany, Section 2 of the ordinance on the use of veterinary medicines by animal keepers and on records (Tierhalter-Arzneimittelanwendungs- und Nachweisverordnung) requires a clear and generally understandable form. What matters is that all details are complete and that you can present them at an inspection.
Can I take over my existing hive cards?
If your hive cards are in a spreadsheet, you import them into iBeekeeper from CSV, XLS or XLSX files and assign the columns to the fields. You enter paper hive cards by hand, ideally first for the colonies you are currently managing.