Why You Need an Apiary Management Software

Running a successful beekeeping operation is easier when you use technology to your advantage. This article looks at why you need an apiary management software as a beekeeper. It also details the features and advantages of using an outstanding apiary management software called BeeKeepPal. This featured outstanding software is made by BeeKeepClub. Modern beekeeping and growth in technological capabilities have given beekeepers different types of software for apiary management. These software applications have varying capabilities. Using any one or more software applications in a beekeeping operation is up to the choice of the beekeeper. Both beginner and experienced beekeepers can use apiary management software in their beekeeping operations.

Most software for apiary management tend to be highly priced. They also have deficiencies in the features they give you. BeeKeepPal does not suffer these challenges. It is developed with consideration to the needs of beekeepers. The developers of the software also took into account the uses of such software and its impact on honeybee colonies. The software has a great set of features that meet all your needs. It is also priced well so no beekeepers are locked out. BeeKeepPal is accessible via the internet on any device you have; PC, smartphone or tablet, etc. It also has apps for iOS and Android operating systems in development.

Benefits of an Apiary Management Software

Apiary management software has many benefits in beekeeping. It helps beekeepers run successful beekeeping operations with ease. The software commonly helps beekeepers record things, analyses the data for them and gives them reports of various kinds. Additionally, most apiary management software are able to track various aspects of beekeeping such as employees, apiary allocations and product batches among others. All these contribute to making beekeeping less tiring for beekeepers and their employees. It also helps with compliance to guidelines and regulations that might be governing beekeeping in your area, county, state or country. These benefits are not limited to;

Easy Recording and Keeping of Records

Apiary management software across the world make recording of various important data easy. The software allows input in various forms not limited to text, images and checking checkboxes. This does away with traditional methods of recording observations and actions taken in your beekeeping operation. It also helps reduce the total amount of space taken by your beekeeping records.

Ultimately, apiary management software ensures that your records are also easy to call up when you need to reference to them. You are spared the need to keep, maintain and organize filing spaces and systems in your beekeeping operation. A simple system making use of annual reports is enough. The detailed reports go into the software you have chosen, the general reports you generate and print go into your simple filing cabinet or drawer.

  • Apiary management software has one or both of two major features that allow recording of observations, actions and thoughts. These are a diary and notebook.
  • The software incorporates one or both of these features so that it is easy for you to track experiments you carry out, successes, failures, and your views about alternatives you could have taken.

Analytics and reports

Data that you collect in beekeeping can be too much for you to analyze and make sense of. Even if you can handle it, you come out of the exercise tired and worn out. You are also prone to making errors in data analysis. Beekeeping management software does analysis of data for you and generates accurate reports. It does this quickly, and produces customizable reports depending on your preferences. You get reports of nearly every aspect of your beekeeping operation including production and financials.

  • These reports can be generated at beehive, apiary or beekeeping company levels so that they go into varying detail.
  • Generated reports are usually downloadable in various formats depending on the software you are using.
  • With BeeKeepPal, you are able to download reports of interest to you in stable PDF file format.

Mapping

Mapping is another common feature of apiary management software. These software applications allow you to input locations of beehives or apiaries through various methods. They then put these on maps of varying details. This enables tracing of apiaries by beekeepers. Some software also go a step further and show you the approximate foraging territory of your honeybee colonies. This makes it easy for you to know the flowers your bees are visiting and the type of honey you are likely to get. apiary management software

  • This feature is great and has been put to many exciting uses in apiary management software.
  • One of the software we have analyzed had a mapping feature where you are able to input locations that you find are suitable for future apiaries.
  • Another one had weather conditions popping up based on the location of the individual apiary.

Access Your Data Wherever You Are

With apiary management software, you are able to access your information anywhere you might be. Most of the software works on internet access methods. With an internet connection, you are able to see many aspects of your beekeeping operation. This is very much unlike traditional record keeping in beekeeping where you had to be physically present at the location of your records storage to be able to access them. With improved access to your records, you easily share experiences with fellow beekeepers, get guidance to better your own beekeeping, and can see how other beekeepers are faring.

Tracking your Beekeeping

Keeping track of your beekeeping is easy with apiary management software. The software helps you stay on top of many aspects of your beekeeping operation. These include employees and other labor, equipment and beehive product batches. Individual software in apiary management has its unique features that enable you to do some tracking on at least more than one aspect of beekeeping. Some allow assigning of tasks to employees so that you can see progress through each task, and through the total amount of work aggregated from all the tasks you have assigned to your employees.

Coded identifiers on equipment and beehives allow easy identification and tracking by software you are using. These include barcodes and QR codes on the equipment or beehive boxes. Scanning these smart identifiers and tags makes calls up details about the item on the software and you can then read or input more data about the individual item. Incomes and expenses are another important aspect of beekeeping that you can track using apiary management software. Your financial flows are important for determination of profitability. Software in apiary management does this very well from the data you input into it. The data may be input at varying levels such as apiary level or beehive level.

  • Apiary management software worth its reputation tracks your expenses as well as incomes you make from the beekeeping operation.
  • It then generates reports for you so that you can see what each beehive and apiary is doing to contribute to the success of your beekeeping operation.

Reminders, notifications, scheduled tasks

Planning beekeeping activities is easy with apiary management software. These software applications often have calendars into which you add tasks and events related to your beekeeping operation. The software then reminds you when the time for the activity nears. Reminders you get include email reminders and audio reminders of various forms.

This helps you carry out activities in a timely manner. You are also able to prepare adequately for scheduled activities. This saves you from missing important developments in your beekeeping and carrying out activities when it is optimum time.

Features of BeeKeepPal Apiary Management Software

BeeKeepPal is apiary management software made by BeeKeepClub. It is offered to both beginner and experienced beekeepers. This software is very well designed with a powerful core running operations with the software. BeeKeepPal is thereby not only effective but also very reliable. It has a user-friendly interface and is easy to navigate through the software.

Using it for various purposes and functions is intuitive so you rarely encounter any difficulty. It is important to note that BeeKeepPal has a round-the-clock support desk ready to assist you with any challenges you may run into during your use of the software. The major and most notable features of BeeKeepPal apiary management software are;

3 Management levels

Managing your apiary with BeeKeepPal is made very easy by having 3 management levels. One is the company level which caters to your entire beekeeping operation. At this level, you see reports and records that cover your beekeeping operation. They include financials and production reports. This allows you to easily see the status of your beekeeping operation. Another management level that you get with BeeKeepPal is the apiary level. The software developers recognize the need to give beekeepers records, analytics and recommendations at apiary level. This is because each apiary in a beekeeping operation is unique due to its location, forage for bees and threats to the apiary among other factors.

BeeKeepPal’s apiary level of management allows you to input data, and get reports showing the production of each apiary. You can also easily tell if an individual apiary is profitable or not. The final and best level of management in BeeKeepPal is the beehive level. Here, you are able to record many things about the individual beehive including inspections, treatments done, preparation for wintering and equipment purchases among others.

  • Yields of beehive products are also recorded at beehive level if you wish to.
  • You get many recommendations and ability to schedule tasks at the beehive level of management.
  • At the beehive level is where most of the action in beekeeping happens. BeeKeepPal recognizes this and has thus included a vibrant, flexible and interactive beehive level of management on the software.

Record inspections

Beehive inspections are a critical function of beekeeping. They give you insights into the progress of your honeybee colonies. A beehive inspection also allows you to see threats to the wellbeing of the honeybees before it overwhelms the colony. Every inspection is carried out with extreme care and attention to detail. BeeKeepPal has made it possible for you to easily record your observations, thoughts and applied solutions during beehive inspections.

This happens at beehive level of management, so the records for each beehive inspection are applied to analyzing the health of the individual beehive. The software then keeps a record of each inspection for use in analyzing broader health of the beehive, apiary and your beekeeping operation. You are able to call up the records for each beehive inspection when you want to refer to the record you made. Inputting the details during inspection is easy on the software by means of the mobile interface and the mobile devices application in development.

  • Each beehive inspection you record into the software is defined as either basic or advanced.
  • Basic inspections have a lot of visual observations in them. You also input some approximations and a rating in the basic inspection type.
  • In an advanced inspection, you are able to record more details as you see and measure in the beehive. The advanced beehive inspection option takes into account threats to the beehive that you find such as diseases and predators.

Schedule tasks

Plan your beekeeping management activities with ease using BeeKeepPal. The apiary management software has an easy calendar that is easy to use and built around your scheduling needs in beekeeping. With the calendar on BeeKeepPal, you can add tasks such as making purchases, beehive inspections and splitting of hives among others.

  • Any activity, task or event that is related to your beekeeping operation can be added onto your BeeKeepPal calendar.
  • When the time for the added task nears, you get an email reminder. With the apps on mobile platforms, you also get notifications and audio reminders
  • This makes sure that you do not miss the task or event that you had planned. BeeKeepPal having the scheduling feature is great.

When scheduling, you are able to think through a task and prepare for it. This makes sure that you bring together the equipment, tools and protective clothing you might need to easily, efficiently and effectively accomplish the task. This has a positive ripple effect on your beekeeping by making you organized, timely and bettering your budgeting and expenditure.

Record production data

While some beekeepers are in it for conservation of honeybees only, others are doing beekeeping for profits, or a mix of both. Even when you are a hobbyist beekeeper, it is important to keep track of production in each beehive. It helps you anticipate events such as swarming which is a primary goal of conservation beekeeping and prepare for them. Beekeeping for profit requires you to track production very closely. It informs you as to whether you are running a profitable operation or not. In the production cycle, you can get many beehive products.

BeeKeepPal helps you keep track of honey, propolis, beeswax and royal jelly produced in each beehive. You can also choose to input this data at company level if you wish. Other products you can track with BeeKeepPal are package bees, beehive components, and equipment among others. Production of nay product in your beekeeping operation is all easily recorded at beehive or company level. With nothing left out, you are able to easily see how much your honeybees are producing and at what rate.

Record financials

Proper financial records are a backbone of any enterprise. Beekeeping is an engaging pursuit with many inputs and outputs. Financial records for beekeeping are therefore of many types. They also encompass many products and inputs that go into your beekeeping operation. BeeKeepPal has financial tracking to help you with your inflow and outflows of money. Everything you purchase is easily entered into the software and used in generating reports. The same goes for anything you sell from your beekeeping operation. These records are brought together in impressive reports that tell you about the state of your finances. The financial records come at beehive level, apiary level and company level too.

Track equipment purchases

Inputs into beekeeping such as equipment purchases are easy to keep track of with BeeKeepPal. The software has a dedicated feature for inventory tracking. This is great for beekeepers to see what they have in the beekeeping operation, and what they need to purchase. You are also able to see equipment that is in surplus and sell it off if you wish to. All purchases of equipment for your beekeeping operation should be entered into the software for better analysis of financial statements. Equipment purchases entered into the software are allocated to an apiary. Beehive components you buy are entered at beehive level.

Data driven recommendations

The engine behind BeeKeepPal is a powerful reminder of how technology can be usefully incorporated into beekeeping. The software analyses data that you input, and from other sources to get a picture of the current state of your beekeeping. It then gives you recommendations that are based on data. These recommendations enhance your beekeeping by helping you solve problems early, prepare for events and time activities for optimum time to carry them out.

  • BeeKeepPal recommendations range from hive inspections and hive splits, to treatments for pests and diseases, among others.
  • They are all shown to you in good faith, and you have the option to follow the recommendations or ignore them.

Use on web and on mobile

BeeKeepPal is available on web and via mobile too. You can use any browse to access the software and input data. Mobile browsers work well with the software. Additionally, BeeKeepPal has applications for mobile in development. The applications work well with any smartphone and tablet devices. On mobile app, you are able to input data with ease on site. This is because BeeKeepPal largely utilizes checkboxes for data input. It does away with text input as much as possible. You are thereby able to input data even with gloves on. This ensures you record observations when they are still fresh on your mind, and are safe from bee stings when near beehives in your apiary.

Beehive Inspection forecast

Planning a beehive inspection is best with consideration to weather conditions. BeeKeepPal has a tool for checking suitability of weather conditions to carrying out beehive inspections. The CheckInspect tool by BeeKeepPal is great for beekeepers to accurately anticipate and plan for conditions in which they will be carrying out a beehive inspection. It gives you recommendations based on weather forecasts for the location of each apiary you have. Its recommendations are of 3 types; optimal conditions, viable conditions and inadvisable conditions. Results for your CheckInspect searches are wide; they cover 7 days and are further broken down into 3-hour periods. This is comprehensive information for any beekeeper planning to go on a beehive inspection. If conditions are not suitable on your appointed day, you can easily search for the next available day during which the weather will be suitable – at least for a quick inspection.

Export records, reports

Export your data in nicely done PDF files from BeeKeepPal. These are mainly the financial and production reports that you generate with BeeKeepPal. This is a useful feature for enabling sharing and filing of the most important information about your beekeeping operation. This could be annual reports and historical reports comparing performance of beehives over a number of years. Getting this data in a stable file format is great consideration by BeeKeepPal.

Team Collaboration

BeeKeepPal has a feature that makes employee tracking easy for you. As the beekeeping company manager in the software, you are able to add employees and assign roles to them. These employees input information relevant to the tasks allocated in the software as they perform the tasks. This feature makes it easy for your team of workers in your beekeeping operation to help you in using BeeKeepPal to manage the operation.