Made in Northern Ireland Free during launch Works offline

The hive notebook you'll actually use.

Voice notes in the apiary. The full record at home. Made in Northern Ireland by a beekeeping Mum and her Daughter.

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The apiary path at Bee Happy Hive, Co. Antrim, with two Honey crocks at the gate, a Welcome sign, and two painted hives in the distance
Our apiary, Co. Antrim. May 2026.
Works offline at the apiary National · WBC · Smith · Langstroth Built in Co. Antrim VMR 2013 compliant records
01 — Two tools, one notebook

The hive needs one tool. The records need another.

A beekeeper's day has two halves: gloves on at the hive, then kettle on at the kitchen table. Bee Happy Hive is built for both.

In the field

Open the phone app at the hive, gloves on. Tap the hive, snap photos, voice-note the inspection, mark the queen seen, walk away when you do. It works offline, so your inspection syncs the moment signal comes back.

The Bee Happy Hive app on a phone, showing the Queen and eggs section of an inspection with 'Eggs — she's laying' selected, and the Stores section showing Good

At home

Open the web dashboard on a bigger screen. Browse every record. Run compliance exports. See trends across the season. Manage multiple apiaries. Print QR tags. The deep, sit-down side of beekeeping.

Treatment Record — Hive 1
VMR 2013
ProductApiguard Gel
Date14 Sep 2025
BatchAG2409-NI
WithdrawalCleared

— Same data. Right tool for the moment.

02 — What's in the notebook

Three things every UK beekeeper needs.

No subscription. Everything below is in the free tier from day one.

The inspection

Queen seen. Eggs present. Brood pattern. Stores. Varroa drop. Temper. Weather snapshot. Photos and voice notes. Tasks for next time. The whole inspection recorded in 60 seconds — gloves on, no signal needed.

The treatment record

Every treatment properly recorded: product, batch number, expiry date, dose, withdrawal period. Kept for five years. Ready as a PDF if DAERA ever asks to see your records. The VMR 2013 fields are already there — you just fill them in.

The season

Every year is different. The willow comes early, or the ivy hangs on longer than you'd expect. Record what you actually see flowering and after a season or two, you'll start to know whether your patch is running ahead, behind, or doing its own thing entirely. That's useful. That's your honey flow.

A honeybee on a pink apple blossom in spring, Northern Ireland

Still happy with a paper notebook?

Fair enough — a notebook never runs out of battery. But it can't text you when treatment withdrawal clears. It can't export a PDF the moment your bee inspector arrives. It can't show you whether your varroa count is trending up across the last six inspections. And if it goes in the wash, your VMR 2013 records go with it.

Bee Happy Hive works alongside your notebook if you want — log on the app at the hive, keep the paper copy too. The legal record is in the cloud either way.

03 — Compliance, made simple

One treatment. One record. Under a minute.

The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 (VMR 2013) require every UK beekeeper who uses any authorised medicine on their bees to keep a treatment record. Eight fields. Five years. We make it automatic.

Most beekeepers know about the rule, but the records end up in a notebook in the shed, or a spreadsheet that stopped getting updated. Bee Happy Hive captures the record at the moment you do the treatment (product, batch, expiry, dose, withdrawal period) and stores it for the five years the law requires.

When DAERA asks, or your mentor asks to see your records, the PDF is ready in seconds.

Start keeping records
Treatment Record — Hive 1, Home Farm
VMR 2013
Product nameApiguard Gel
Active ingredientThymol 25%
Date administered14 September 2025
Batch numberAG2409-NI
Expiry dateMarch 2027
Dose50g tray × 2
Withdrawal periodSame season
Hive / ApiaryHive 1 · Home Farm
Generated by Bee Happy Hive in compliance with the
Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.

By jurisdiction

Pick your country. Requirements vary.

Northern Ireland

DAERA (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs) is the responsible authority. NI follows EU Animal Health Law due to the Windsor Framework.

Treatment records: 5 years minimum
Legal requirement under VMR 2013. Records must be readily accessible and produced to an authorised officer on request.
✓ Bee Happy Hive stores all eight required fields for five years. PDF export in seconds.
AFB and EFB: notifiable diseases
American Foulbrood and European Foulbrood must be reported to DAERA Plant Health Inspectorate immediately if suspected.
✓ If you tick AFB or EFB in an inspection, the app prompts you to call DAERA on 0300 200 7840.
DataBees registration: voluntary but encouraged
DAERA encourages NI beekeepers to register their apiaries on DataBees. Helps disease surveillance.
✓ Your apiary GPS coordinates are ready to copy into DataBees.
England & Wales

The National Bee Unit (NBU) is the responsible authority. BeeBase is the voluntary registration system. VMR 2013 applies throughout.

Treatment records: 5 years minimum
Legal requirement under VMR 2013. Records can be requested by a bee inspector at any time.
✓ Eight required fields captured. PDF export in seconds.
Varroa: notifiable in law
Varroa destructor has been notifiable in England and Wales since 2006. In practice, NBU enforcement focuses on AFB and EFB — but keeping varroa monitoring records is good practice and demonstrates due diligence. Confirm current guidance at nationalbeeunit.com.
✓ Varroa monitoring records are ready to export.
BeeBase registration: voluntary but encouraged
Over 50,000 beekeepers registered. Enables NBU to contact you if disease is reported in your area.
✓ Apiary GPS coordinates ready for BeeBase registration.
Scotland

SASA (Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture) is the responsible authority. BeeScotland is the registration system. VMR 2013 applies throughout Scotland.

Treatment records: 5 years minimum
Legal requirement under VMR 2013. Records can be requested by a bee inspector at any time.
✓ Eight required fields captured. PDF export in seconds.
AFB and EFB: notifiable diseases
American Foulbrood and European Foulbrood must be reported to SASA immediately if suspected. Contact your local bee inspector or SASA on 0131 244 8890.
AFB/EFB SASA prompt coming soon — for now, contact SASA directly on 0131 244 8890.
BeeScotland registration: voluntary but encouraged
SASA runs BeeScotland separately from the NBU's BeeBase. Registering helps disease surveillance across Scotland.
✓ Apiary GPS coordinates ready for BeeScotland registration.
Republic of Ireland

DAFM (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) is the responsible authority. EU veterinary medicines legislation applies. Food business registration required if you sell honey.

Treatment records
EU veterinary medicines legislation applies in RoI. Fields mirror VMR 2013 requirements.
✓ Captured fields meet DAFM expectations. PDF export for inspections.
Food business registration
All beekeepers producing honey for sale must register with DAFM as food business operators.
✓ Harvest records support traceability.
AFB and EFB: notifiable
Notifiable to DAFM in the Republic of Ireland.
✓ App prompts immediate reporting with DAFM contact.

Approved varroa treatments

What's approved depends on where you keep bees.

The products are largely the same across the UK and Ireland, but each jurisdiction has its own approving body. Always check your regulator's current list before treating — approvals do change.

Approved by the VMD (Veterinary Medicines Directorate) under VMR 2013. Verify at vmd.defra.gov.uk before use. NI beekeepers: products with EU-wide EMA authorisation are also valid under the Windsor Framework.

ProductActive ingredientWithdrawal / notes
ApiguardThymolHarvest not within same season as treatment
ThymovarThymolHarvest not within same season as treatment
ApilifevarThymol, eucalyptus, menthol, camphorHarvest not within same season as treatment
MAQSFormic acidMay be used with supers on per product guidance
ApistanTau-fluvalinateNot applicable if used correctly outside honey flow. Widespread varroa resistance — check local advice before use.
Api-BioxalOxalic acid dihydratePrescription required. Broodless period treatment.

Verified against the VMD Product Information Database, May 2026. Always check vmd.defra.gov.uk for current approvals.

What Bee Happy Hive does — and does not — claim

Bee Happy Hive generates the records the law requires, in the format the law describes, kept for the period the law mandates. That is the claim. No more.

We do not claim to be officially endorsed by DAERA, NBU, or any government body. Not yet. We do not claim our records automatically satisfy every possible inspector's requirements. The beekeeper is still responsible for their own compliance. We make it easy. We do not make it guaranteed.

A close-up of honeybees working on golden honeycomb, frame held vertically with a queen cell visible
What the records are for.
04 — The people who built it

A Mum, her Daughter, and one curious colony.

Two painted hives, lavender and red, on an orange stand with a Welcome to our happy HIVE sign and a Honey crock with flowers

Welcome to our happy hive. Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.

One Mum. One Daughter. One colony of bees. Zero idea what we're doing.

It started with a question from Bee Girl: "Mum, can we get bees?" We did the Introduction to Bees course at the Randalstown & District Beekeepers Association in Antrim. We went in curious. We came out obsessed.

What we couldn't find anywhere was a hive notebook that worked with gloves on, and kept the records the law actually requires. So we made one.

Our blog (Hive & Seek at beehappyhoney.uk) is where we tell the stories: the willow, the dandelion, the first inspection of spring. Bee Happy Hive is where we keep the records.

Read the Hive & Seek blog →

Two beekeepers in protective suits at a hive during R&BKA training

Trained at R&BKA

Beekeepers, taught by beekeepers.

We did the Introduction to Bees course at the Randalstown & District Beekeepers Association in Antrim. We went in curious, came out obsessed. Bee Happy Hive is built around what they taught us there: a notebook two beginners actually needed, and records an inspector will recognise.

05 — Pricing

Free to start. No card.

Every part of the field tool, every compliance feature, every record export, free during the launch period. We'll give every early user plenty of notice before anything changes.

The free tier

£0

Free during launch · no credit card

Create your free account
What's coming next. We're working on AI insights and automatic colony alerts. When those arrive, they'll be the paid tier — we're thinking around £2.99/month or £24.99/year, nothing more. Everything that's live today stays free for anyone who signs up now, and we'll give you plenty of notice before anything changes.

Your records are yours. Always.

Your inspection records and treatment records are stored in your account on Supabase — an open, audited cloud platform. They sync to your phone so they're available offline, and you can export everything as a PDF or CSV at any time, no permission needed.

If Bee Happy Hive ever closes — which we don't plan — we'll give 90 days' notice and a full data export before any account is removed. Your VMR 2013 records belong to you, and you'll always be able to take them with you.

06 — Get the Android app

It installs as a real Android app, not just a shortcut to a webpage.

Biometric unlock. Works offline at the apiary. When there's a new version, it updates itself. (PWA also available if you'd rather not install.)

Download APK ↓ Or use the web version
On an iPhone? Every feature works in Safari — inspections, treatment records, offline, the lot. Open hive.beehappyhoney.uk in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. It works exactly like the Android app. A native iOS app is coming.

Start keeping records today.

Free during launch. No card. Your VMR 2013 records start from your first treatment, and stay for five years.