For UK beekeepers · AI-powered · Live on iOS & Web
Built for the UK beekeeping year.
An AI Asian Hornet identifier, crop spraying alerts, the UK nectar calendar, BeeBase export and the BBKA seasonal calendar — plus voice inspections that fill the form for you. The one beekeeping app built around the UK beekeeping year, by a Northamptonshire beekeeper.
There are plenty of beekeeping apps. Most were built for American or European operations. HiveKeeper was built for how British beekeepers actually keep bees.
1
Built around the UK beekeeping year
Works with every UK hive type — National, Commercial, WBC, Smith, Top Bar, Warré, Nuc. The BBKA seasonal calendar drives your alerts. UK varroa treatment windows. Export inspection data to BeeBase / NBU format in one tap.
2
Aware of your environment
Integrated Asian Hornet Watch panel with live UK sightings map and in-app reporting. A Crop Spraying Tracker for pesticide exposure near your apiaries. The UK Nectar Calendar with 16 UK forage sources and monthly intensity. Forage conditions based on the weather at your apiary.
3
AI that understands beekeeping
Voice notes at the hive that fill the form for you. A chat assistant trained on your apiary data, with UK-legal treatments only. An AI Asian Hornet identifier that confirms Vespa velutina from a photo before you submit to Asian Hornet Watch. Built by beekeepers, for beekeepers.
4
Made by a beekeeper, not a startup
Built in Brigstock by Chris Culshaw, a BBKA Swarm Collector running multiple apiaries in Northamptonshire. Emails get answered personally. Still being shaped by the beekeepers using it. If something's wrong, tell Chris — he's the one reading.
What's actually in the app
The things no other beekeeping app actually ships.
We didn't want to build another generic hive logger. These are the features that exist because UK beekeepers told us what they needed — and that, honestly, no one else is shipping.
Hands-Free Voice Inspections Beta
Tap once, say “begin inspection”, and walk your hives in order without touching the screen. Talk through what you see — queen, brood, stores, varroa, temper, swarm cells — in plain English, and the AI fills the form for you. A beep tells you when it’s listening, it reads your words back on screen so you know they landed, and it moves you on to the next hive. Hands in the hive, eyes on the bees.
Asian Hornet Identifier
Photo a suspect, get a Vespa velutina confidence score and the technical features the AI noticed (yellow tarsi, dark thorax, abdomen banding). Submit straight to Asian Hornet Watch with the photo attached.
HiveKeeper AI Chat
A chat assistant trained on your apiary's data, with UK context throughout. Ask about strange brood patterns, photograph a frame for analysis, get direct practical advice. UK-legal treatments only.
Crop Spraying Tracker
Log and see pesticide events within 6 miles of your apiaries. Severity scaling. Know when to keep your bees inside for a day.
UK Nectar Calendar
16 UK forage sources from willow to ivy, each with monthly intensity. Know what's active this week and when the peak is coming.
Satellite Apiary Map
Drag hives to their exact position. Place landmarks — sheds, water, trees. Rotate to match reality. Map zoom syncs across your devices.
Inventory & Refurb Pile
Track every box, frame, jar and lid. Boxes coming off a hive go to a refurb pile because they're not deployable until cleaned. Bottle directly from a harvest with automatic stock decrement.
Lone Worker SOS
One-tap emergency with live GPS. Texts your chosen contact with your exact location. For when you're at the out-apiary on your own.
Health Score 0–100
One number per hive, combining queen, brood, stores, varroa, temper and swarm risk. See trouble coming before it arrives.
Plan Your Visit Beta
Set the order you'll work an apiary — drag hives into the round, and the first one's flagged as your start. Then just crack on: inspect, skip a hive with a reason if you need to, and the app moves you straight to the next one. No hunting for what's left.
Share an Apiary
Co-manage a hive with a mentor, a partner, or your local beekeeping association. Invite via link — they see what you see.
Asian Hornet Watch
Live UK sightings map in your hand. Severity alerts when sightings appear near your apiaries. Submit verified sightings in two taps.
Queen Rearing Calendar
Track a grafting batch through every stage — graft, acceptance, capping, transfer to mating nucs, emergence, mating, first eggs. The app tells you the next action and the day it's due, including the critical “move cells before day 12” warning.
Treatment Efficacy Tracker
Pair pre- and post-treatment mite counts and the app calculates real efficacy. Below 80% it flags likely resistance. Withdrawal-period countdowns per product, and a warning if you reach for the same active ingredient twice on one hive.
Swarm Risk Forecast
Reads the 14-day forecast for your apiary and warns you when swarm pressure is building. Colonies can't fly in cold, wet spells — then all release on the first warm day. HiveKeeper sees that day coming. UK-calibrated, peak window flagged.
Swarm Catch Log
Caught a swarm? Log it straight into an empty or available box in two taps — the app only offers boxes that are actually free. As a BBKA swarm collector's tool, it keeps your collections and their new homes recorded from the moment you hive them.
In development: Hive Transfer (hand a hive and its entire history to another keeper, with one-tap onboarding for newcomers), a forage intelligence layer, an expanded in-app Field Guide, and a link to cropspray.farm so spray notifications from nearby farmers land against the apiaries they affect. Shaped by the beekeepers using HiveKeeper — not promised with a date, but actively being built.
Built in the field
Not designed in a boardroom. Designed on a trailer.
Every feature in HiveKeeper exists because I needed it at 6am, in a field, with multiple apiaries to get through. Voice notes because your hands are in the hive. Asian hornet AI because the threat is real. Crop-spraying alerts because losing a colony to drift is devastating. Lone-worker SOS because some apiaries have no signal and no one nearby.
This is beekeeping software written by someone who still drops the hive tool in the grass.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no hidden tiers.
Free if you've got a few hives. Pro if you're serious. Commercial if you're running a bee business. Every new account gets a 14-day Pro trial of the full thing, no card needed.
Free
For the first few hives
£0 forever
14-day full Pro trial included with every account.
I'm Chris. I'm a BBKA Swarm Collector running multiple apiaries in and around Brigstock, Northamptonshire. HiveKeeper is the app I built because I was tired of hauling a notebook around the apiary and trying to decipher my own handwriting on Sunday evenings.
Tired of American apps that didn't understand how UK beekeepers actually keep bees. Tired of ignoring the Asian hornet threat because no one had built the tools to track it alongside the actual work.
What started as a personal tool became something other beekeepers asked to try. Then test. Then rely on. Today it's being shaped by a dedicated beta testing group whose feedback runs the roadmap.
If something's wrong, tell me — I'm the one reading. HiveKeeper is owned by Culshaw Consulting Ltd, the small consultancy I run.
— Chris
Culshaw Consulting Ltd
Company No. 16938477
Trade Mark Filed
UKIPO Classes 9, 35, 42
D-U-N-S Number
234452896
Based in
Brigstock, Northamptonshire
The next generation
Beekeeping is better shared.
My daughter Tilly is already spotting the queens faster than me. HiveKeeper isn't just about making my beekeeping easier — it's about passing the knowledge on.
Apiary sharing lets you invite a partner, a mentor, or your local association to co-manage a hive. Everything you see, they see.
Start keeping better records this week.
14-day Pro trial of the full thing. No credit card needed.
