Terms of Service

1. Who we are

HiveKeeper is operated by Culshaw Consulting Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16938477).

Registered office:
30 Stanion Road
Brigstock
Northamptonshire NN14 3HW
United Kingdom

For the purposes of these Terms, "we", "us", "our", and "HiveKeeper" refer to Culshaw Consulting Ltd. "You" and "your" refer to the individual using the HiveKeeper app, website, or related services.

You can contact us at [email protected].

2. What HiveKeeper is

HiveKeeper is a beekeeping management application designed for UK beekeepers. It helps you record inspections, track hive health, log harvests and treatments, receive alerts about Asian hornet sightings and nearby crop spraying, and get AI-assisted guidance based on UK beekeeping practice.

HiveKeeper is accessible through:

• Our web application at gethivekeeper.com
• Native iOS and Android apps available from the Apple App Store and Google Play

By creating an account or using HiveKeeper in any form, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.

3. Your account

To use HiveKeeper you need an account. You are responsible for:

• Keeping your login credentials (email, password, or magic link access) secure
• All activity that happens under your account
• Notifying us promptly at [email protected] if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission

Each HiveKeeper account is for a single named user. You may not share your login credentials. If you want multiple beekeepers to access the same apiary, use the shared apiary feature instead of sharing an account.

Information you provide must be accurate and kept up to date. If we discover that an account has been created using false information, or by someone who does not meet the age requirement, we may suspend or close the account.

4. Age restrictions

HiveKeeper is intended for users aged 18 or over. By signing up, you confirm that you are at least 18 years old. This reflects that paid subscriptions are processed via standard payment cards, which are generally only available to adults.

We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has signed up for HiveKeeper, please contact [email protected] and we will delete the account as soon as reasonably possible.

5. Subscriptions, pricing, and trials

Tiers

HiveKeeper is offered on three tiers:

Prices shown above are indicative and may change. The price you pay will be the price displayed at the point of purchase. We will always tell you in advance if we change prices for your existing subscription.

Free trial

We offer a 14-day free trial of Pro features to new accounts that don't qualify for Founding Beekeeper status. During the trial you have full Pro access. At the end of the trial:

• Your account reverts to the Free tier automatically
• You will not be charged unless you actively choose to upgrade
• Data you created during the trial stays with you; some features (voice inspections, AI chat, extended reports) simply become unavailable until you upgrade

Billing

Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annually) at the then-current rate, until cancelled. Payments are processed via:

• Stripe for subscriptions purchased through our website
• Apple App Store for subscriptions purchased through our iOS app
• Google Play Billing for subscriptions purchased through our Android app

If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, their terms and cancellation processes apply alongside these Terms.

VAT

Prices shown are inclusive of UK VAT where applicable.

6. Founding Beekeepers

Founding Beekeepers are users who helped shape HiveKeeper during its closed beta. If you are a Founding Beekeeper:

• You receive HiveKeeper Pro free of charge, for as long as your HiveKeeper account remains active
• This benefit is tied to your individual account. It is not transferable to other people, other accounts, or new accounts created after the original account is deleted
• If you close your account, the Founding Beekeeper benefit ends. We cannot reinstate it on a new account
• You may downgrade, cancel, or change tiers at any time just like any other user

We reserve the right to withdraw Founding Beekeeper status in cases of serious breach of these Terms (for example, abuse of the service or attempts to defraud us or other users).

7. Cancellation and refunds

Cancelling your subscription

You can cancel a paid subscription at any time:

• Subscriptions via gethivekeeper.com: manage or cancel from the Billing section of your account settings, or email us at [email protected]
• Subscriptions via iOS: manage via Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on your Apple device
• Subscriptions via Android: manage via Google Play → Subscriptions

If you cancel, your subscription continues until the end of the period you've already paid for. You will not be charged for the next period.

Refunds

Under UK consumer law, you have a 14-day right to cancel and receive a full refund after first purchasing a paid subscription, provided you have not materially used the paid features during that period. If you have used the paid features (for example, run voice inspections or AI chat) you may forfeit this right.

Outside of the 14-day cancellation period, subscription payments are generally non-refundable. We may offer pro-rata refunds at our discretion in exceptional circumstances — for example, an extended service outage.

For subscriptions purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play, refund requests must be made directly through Apple or Google respectively, in line with their refund policies.

Account deletion

You can delete your account at any time via the Delete Account page. Deleting your account does not automatically trigger a refund of unused subscription time unless you also request one within the 14-day window above.

8. Your data and content

You own your data

All the beekeeping data you create in HiveKeeper — apiaries, hives, inspections, photos, voice recordings, harvests, treatments, notes — belongs to you. We do not claim ownership of your content.

Licence to operate the service

To run HiveKeeper on your behalf, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, process, display, and transmit your content for the purpose of providing the service to you. This licence ends when you delete the content or close your account.

How we handle your data

How we collect, store, and process your personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy. That policy forms part of these Terms by reference.

Data export

You can export your beekeeping records at any time via the in-app export features. We encourage you to export a copy periodically as a personal backup.

9. Shared apiaries

HiveKeeper allows you to share access to one of your apiaries with other HiveKeeper users, so that (for example) a partner, association secretary, or helper can view or contribute to the records.

The owner keeps ownership

When you invite another beekeeper to your apiary:

• You remain the owner of all data in that apiary — the hives, the inspection records, the photos, everything
• The person you invite has access permissions only, not ownership
• You can revoke their access at any time, and when you do, their access ends immediately with no right to retain or re-use the data

If you're the invitee

Likewise, if another beekeeper grants you access to their apiary:

• The data in that apiary belongs to them, not you
• You may view and (if permitted) edit it within HiveKeeper, but you must not export, scrape, screenshot, or otherwise retain a copy of their data for use outside HiveKeeper without their explicit permission
• If access is revoked, you must stop using any information obtained through that shared access

This clause exists to protect both primary beekeepers (so their records stay theirs) and shared-access users (so expectations are clear).

10. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use HiveKeeper for any unlawful purpose, or to infringe anyone's rights
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to other users' accounts, data, or apiaries
• Upload content that is unlawful, abusive, harassing, obscene, or otherwise objectionable
• Upload or store data that is not reasonably related to beekeeping (the service is not a general-purpose storage or messaging platform)
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the app, except to the limited extent permitted by UK law
• Use automated systems (bots, scrapers) to access, mass-download, or otherwise interact with the service without our written permission
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute access to HiveKeeper without our written permission
• Use HiveKeeper in a way that could overload, disrupt, or damage our systems or those of other users

We may suspend or close accounts that breach these rules, without refund in serious cases.

11. AI features

HiveKeeper includes AI-powered features such as the in-app chat assistant, inspection transcription, and frame analysis from photos. These features use third-party AI services to produce their output.

Specifically:

• AI transcriptions may contain errors. You should review them and correct anything important before relying on them
• AI advice about varroa treatments, disease diagnosis, queen-rearing, or colony interventions is a starting point, not a substitute for expert consultation
• We do not warrant that AI output will be accurate, complete, current, or fit for your specific situation

You retain responsibility for all decisions made about your apiary.

12. Asian hornet reporting

HiveKeeper includes a feature that lets you report Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) sightings. Because Asian hornet is an invasive species posing serious risk to UK beekeeping, these reports are forwarded on your behalf to the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) at [email protected], as part of the national invasive species monitoring programme.

When you submit a hornet sighting, the information shared with CEH includes:

• The date and location of your sighting
• Any photographs you attached
• Any notes or description you added
• Your name and email address, so CEH can follow up if needed

By submitting a hornet sighting through HiveKeeper you consent to this data being shared with CEH for the purpose of invasive species monitoring and response. This data sharing is additional to our general Privacy Policy.

If you'd rather report hornets directly without involving HiveKeeper, you can do so via the Asian Hornet Watch app or the CEH contact above.

13. Beta status

HiveKeeper is currently in a public beta phase. This means:

• Features may change, be added, or be removed without advance notice
• You may encounter bugs, performance issues, or data inconsistencies. We fix them as quickly as we can when they are reported
• Our infrastructure is production-grade but the service has not yet had the benefit of years of real-world use at scale
• We strongly encourage you to keep your own records outside HiveKeeper — for example, by exporting your data periodically — until the beta period is over

During the beta period, HiveKeeper is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. The warranty disclaimers and limits of liability in these Terms apply with particular force during the beta.

14. Service availability

We aim to keep HiveKeeper available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However:

• We may need to temporarily suspend access for maintenance, updates, or emergency repairs. Where possible we'll give advance notice
• We rely on third-party infrastructure (Supabase, Cloudflare, hosting providers) and cannot guarantee uninterrupted service
• Poor mobile signal, device issues, or problems with your internet connection may stop the app working for you even when our systems are fully operational — HiveKeeper is designed to work offline and sync later, but some features require a live connection

We do not offer a formal Service Level Agreement (SLA) on the Free, Pro, or Commercial consumer tiers.

15. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or any other liability which cannot be limited or excluded under UK law.

Subject to that, to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• HiveKeeper is provided to consumer (non-business) users on the terms set out in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. We do not exclude statutory rights you have as a consumer
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, loss of business, loss of profit, loss of reputation, or any losses arising from your reliance on information produced by AI features
• We are not liable for the welfare of your bees, the performance of your colonies, the quality of your harvest, or financial consequences of decisions you make as a beekeeper, even where you used HiveKeeper in the process
• Our total aggregate liability to you in any 12-month period will not exceed the amount you paid for HiveKeeper during the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or £100, whichever is greater

You are the beekeeper. You are responsible for your bees. HiveKeeper is a tool to help you; it is not a substitute for your own skill, care, and judgement.

16. Termination

By you

You may stop using HiveKeeper at any time. You can delete your account via the Delete Account page.

By us

We may suspend or close your account if:

• You seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms
• We reasonably suspect fraud, abuse, or other unlawful activity
• You are under 18 and signed up without meeting the age requirement
• We are required to do so by law
• We discontinue HiveKeeper (we'd give reasonable notice and help you export your data)

What happens on termination

On termination of your account:

• You lose access to the service immediately (for serious breaches) or at the end of your current billing period (for normal cancellations)
• Your personal data is handled as set out in our Privacy Policy
• Clauses that by their nature should survive termination (including your data rights, limitation of liability, and governing law) continue to apply

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time — for example, to reflect new features, changes in the law, or changes in how we operate.

When we make significant changes we will:

• Update the version number and effective date at the top of this page
• Notify registered users by email, in-app message, or both, at least 14 days before the changes take effect

If you don't agree to the new Terms, you can cancel your subscription and close your account before they take effect. Continuing to use HiveKeeper after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms.

Minor corrections (fixing typos, clarifying wording without changing meaning) may be made without notice.

18. Governing law

These Terms, and any disputes arising out of or in connection with them or the HiveKeeper service, are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

You agree that the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that if you are a consumer resident in another part of the United Kingdom, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the UK where you live.

Nothing in this clause affects your rights under mandatory local consumer protection law.

19. Contact us

For questions about these Terms, your account, billing, or anything else, please get in touch:

• General: [email protected]
• Privacy and data protection: [email protected]
• Postal: Culshaw Consulting Ltd, 30 Stanion Road, Brigstock, Northamptonshire NN14 3HW, United Kingdom

We aim to respond to account and billing queries within 2 working days.