An offline inspection logbook for beekeepers

The hive log that doesn’t tell you what to do.

Record 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.

$9.99, once. ✓ no subscription ✓ no account ✓ no server

Coming to the App Store Follow the build on GitHub →

The HiveNote inspection form: large glove-sized controls for queen sighting, brood pattern, queen cells and frame counts

The rule the whole app is built around

It records. It never advises.

HiveNote is an instrument, not an adviser. It writes down what you observed and shows it back to you, plainly, with no verdict attached.

What it writes down

4 Aug 2026 · Hive 1

queeneggs seen

brood patternsolid

frames of bees9

varroa1.5 / 100 · sugar roll

hive weight34.5 kg

notestrong flow on, supered

What it will never write

“This brood pattern looks unhealthy.”
“Treat for varroa.”
“Consider requeening.”
“3 mites per 100 bees means treat.”

No interpretation, no colony scores, no thresholds stated as fact, and nothing that resembles veterinary, agricultural or biosecurity advice.

If you work to a figure from a source you trust, write it into Settings and HiveNote will show it back beside your varroa count, exactly as you entered it, attributed to nothing. The app ships no numbers of its own.

A logbook cannot be wrong about your bees. An adviser can. Those judgements stay yours.

Field specifications

Built for the moment the lid comes off.

Every design decision serves one target: a complete inspection in under 45 seconds, one-handed, wearing thick gloves, in bright sunlight, with no signal.

Controls

Glove-sized, all of them

Nothing smaller than 56pt. Hold + or − to run a frame count up instead of tapping twenty times.

Persistence

Nothing is ever lost

Every tap saves immediately. Lock the phone, take a call, force-quit: the inspection is waiting where you left it.

Legibility

Readable in full sun

Large type, full Dynamic Type support, and a high-contrast mode for bright light. Dark mode included.

Network

None required

No account, no server, no analytics. The only network call in the whole app is the App Store purchase itself.

Mistakes

Undo on everything

Delete an apiary, hive, inspection or harvest and take it straight back. Mistakes are not permanent.

Ownership

Your records, as a file

Export a PDF or a spreadsheet whenever you like. Back the whole thing up as one file you own and keep anywhere.

The plates

What you found last time, before you open the hive.

Genuine screens from the app. The hive list leads with days since the last inspection and what was recorded at it: stated plainly, no colour coding, no verdict.

Hive list showing days since last inspection and recorded flags for each hive — **Plate I**Days since, and what was recorded.

History timeline of past inspections on one hive, newest first — **Plate II**Every inspection, newest first.

The inspection form with large optional fields — **Plate III**The form. Optional fields, saved on every tap.

A full inspection record shown exactly as entered — **Plate IV**The full record, exactly as entered.

Settings, showing the high contrast toggle and the beekeeper's own reference note — **Plate V**Your reference note, not ours.

Export

A season on paper, made on the phone.

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.

The PDF HiveNote generates: a hive's inspections laid out as a printed record

The price

One payment, not one a year.

Paid tiers in this category usually renew annually and can run to around $50 a year, every year you keep bees. HiveNote is a single purchase, and the free tier is a real logbook, not a demo.

^$9.99 once. that’s it

What you get	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

Questions

Asked plainly, answered plainly.

Who makes this?

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 never losing it.

Does it work without signal?

Yes, entirely. Everything lives in a database file on your phone. The only thing that ever needs a connection is the purchase itself.

What happens to my records if I stop paying?

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.

Where is my data stored?

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.

Is there an Android version?

iOS first. The app is built with React Native, so Android is possible, but it is not promised or dated.