HiveNote HiveNoteRecord an inspection in under a minute — in gloves, in the sun, with no signal. Then see exactly what you found last time, before you lift the lid.
HiveNote is an instrument, not an adviser. It writes down what you observed and shows it back to you. It will never:
If you work to a figure from a source you trust, write it in Settings and HiveNote will show it back beside your varroa count, exactly as you entered it. The app ships no numbers of its own. Those judgements are yours.
Every design decision serves one target: a complete inspection in under 45 seconds, one-handed, wearing thick gloves, in bright sunlight, with no signal.
Nothing smaller than 56pt. Hold + or − to run a frame count up instead of tapping twenty times.
Every tap saves immediately. Lock the phone, take a call, force-quit — the inspection is waiting where you left it.
Large type, full Dynamic Type support, and a high-contrast mode for bright sun. Dark mode included.
No account, no server, no analytics. Nothing you record is sent anywhere, because there is nowhere for it to go.
Delete an apiary, hive, inspection or harvest and take it straight back. Mistakes are not permanent.
Export a PDF or a spreadsheet whenever you like. Back the whole thing up as one file you own.
The hive list leads with days since the last inspection and what was recorded at it — stated plainly, with no colour coding and no verdict attached.
A PDF or CSV of every inspection on a hive, generated on the device — no upload, no round trip, no signal required. Photos come with it.
Once you have bought the unlock, export keeps working. Your records are never held back from you.
Paid tiers in this category are usually annual, and can run to around $50 a year, every year you keep bees. HiveNote is a single purchase.
| Free | One-time unlock | |
|---|---|---|
| Full inspection form, every field | Yes | Yes |
| Hive history | Yes | Yes |
| Apiaries and hives | 1 apiary, 3 hives | Unlimited |
| PDF and CSV export | — | Yes |
| Photo history | — | Yes |
| Harvest log | — | Yes |
| Price | Free | $9.99 once |
One independent developer, who is not a beekeeper. That is exactly why HiveNote takes no view on beekeeping: a logbook cannot be wrong about your bees, but an adviser can. The app sticks to what it can be right about — recording what you tell it, quickly and without losing it.
Yes, entirely. Everything lives in a database file on your phone. The only thing that ever needs a connection is the purchase itself.
There is nothing to stop paying. It is one purchase. There is no subscription, and no state in which your records become unreadable or unexportable.
On your device, and nowhere else. There is no account and no server. You can save a backup as a single file and keep it wherever you like, including iCloud Drive.
iOS first. The app is built with React Native, so Android is possible, but it is not promised or dated.