Complete Beginner's Guide to Beekeeping: Hive Inspections, Varroa & Record-Keeping

Beekeeping is learned quickly — but documented over a lifetime. Why log, photograph, and track? Because memory rewrites itself while records stay true. This guide covers how to inspect a hive, monitor varroa, trace your harvests, and organise your apiaries. And how BeePilot makes sure you never leave the apiary without recording what you found.

How to Inspect a Beehive Step by Step

An inspection is not improvised — but it takes just twenty minutes once you know what to look for. The goal: assess the colony's condition, catch problems early, and leave with usable data rather than vague impressions.

Prepare for the visit

Light your smoker with dry material — cardboard, straw, or wood chips. A well-lit smoker holds for 20 to 30 minutes. Put on your full protective suit — even in warm weather, a sting to the face ruins the session. Bring your hive tool, a soft brush, and something to write with.

Aim for a slot between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on a warm, still, sunny day. Field bees are out foraging — the hive is less crowded and less defensive.

Open the hive

Puff smoke at the entrance, wait 30 seconds. Smoke under the crown board before lifting it — bees gorge on honey and drop their guard. Remove the cover in one calm motion and rest it upside-down beside the hive.

Inspect frame by frame

Start from the edge. Look for: the queen (or her signs — eggs and larvae under 3 days old), the brood pattern (compact is healthy), honey and pollen stores, and signs of disease — AFB, EFB, chalkbrood, or visible varroa. Grade the colony A to D: A for a strong colony, D for urgent intervention.

Close up and log immediately

Replace frames in order, close the hive gently. Log in BeePilot before leaving the apiary — not that evening, not the next morning. Memory reconstructs; notes restore. The app walks you through every field and automatically timestamps the entry with the hive and apiary.

Try BeePilot's guided inspection →

Varroa Mite Management: Counting, Thresholds and Treatments

Varroa destructor is the single biggest threat to managed honeybee colonies worldwide. This external parasite reproduces inside capped brood, weakens larvae, and spreads viruses. Without regular monitoring, a colony can collapse within months — with no visible warning.

How to count varroa

The natural mite drop (sticky board under the hive for 24 or 48 hours) is the least invasive method. Count the mites on the board, divide by the number of days: more than 10 drops per day in summer is a warning sign. The alcohol wash (about 200 bees in 70% alcohol) gives an infestation percentage — above 2 to 3%, treat.

Thresholds and timing

There is no universal calendar. A hive near a monoculture (oilseed rape, sunflowers) can reach the critical threshold by July; a mountain hive may not reach it until September. Treating by the calendar is sometimes too early for one colony and too late for another.

The rule: count regularly — every two weeks during the critical period — and trigger treatment from the data, not from the date. Log your counts in BeePilot; the app tracks the trend and alerts you as the threshold approaches, rather than you having to recalculate at every visit.

Available treatments

Approved treatments vary by country. Common options: oxalic acid (in winter on broodless colonies, vaporised or trickled), formic acid (Maqs, Formivar — summer use), amitraz (Apivar, spring and autumn). Each treatment leaves a trace in the health record. BeePilot logs the application date and reminds you of the removal date before your next harvest.

Track varroa with BeePilot →

Harvest Tracking and Traceability: From Hive to Label

Traceability means knowing exactly where each jar of honey came from — and being able to prove it. Whether you're selling at a market, answering a customer's question, or reviewing a hive's history two years later, you need connected records rather than scattered notes.

One QR code per hive

BeePilot generates a unique QR code for every hive. Print it on a waterproof label and stick it on the hive body. In the field, one scan pulls up the full history: inspections, treatments, queens, harvests. You can also print it on your honey jars as simple proof of origin — from the apiary to the jar.

Log and analyse your harvests

For each harvest, record: the date, the apiary, gross extracted weight, net jarred weight, and honey type. Over time you'll see which hives produce the most, which locations deliver the best flows, and which years are exceptional. Those data points — not gut feelings — guide your decisions going forward, rather than having to rebuild context from scratch each season.

Track your harvests with BeePilot →

Managing Multiple Apiaries: Tools and Best Practices

Once you have two or three apiaries, complexity grows fast. Which hive was visited last week? Which treatment is still running at site B? Which apiary had the best yields this year? Without a system, the thread breaks.

Map your apiaries

Give each apiary a name and a precise location (GPS or address). At a glance, you can see the state of your whole operation: healthy apiaries, hives in alert, overdue visits. BeePilot consolidates all your apiaries on a single screen, rather than scattering information across notebooks, spreadsheets, and phone photos.

Reminders and field sync

Set reminders: "visit this apiary in 10 days", "remove Apivar strips on 15 October". Notifications arrive before you forget — not after. And everything works offline: record in a dead zone, sync when you find a signal.

Manage all your apiaries with BeePilot →

BeePilot: The App Built for the Field

BeePilot is not a spreadsheet adapted for beekeeping. It's a mobile app designed from the ground up for beekeepers — from the hobbyist managing 2 hives to the professional tracking 200.

BeePilot is coming soon to iOS and Android.

Get notified at launch →