Beekeeping Operations¶

Beekeeping operations help you plan, track, and document all the work you do with your hives. Bifolk supports four types of operations: feeding, treatments, maintenance, and hive combines. Each type has its own list, detail, create, and edit pages.

Target Audience: Beekeepers managing hive operations

Overview¶

Operations are linked to a specific hive and your organization. Every operation follows a status workflow and can be scheduled, assigned to a user, and tracked with costs and notes.

All operation types share a set of common fields plus type-specific fields described in the sections below.

Common Fields¶

Every operation type includes:

Field	Description	Required
Hive	Which hive this operation is for	Yes
Status	Planned, In Progress, Completed, or Cancelled	Yes
Priority	Low, Medium, High, or Urgent	Yes
Scheduled Date	When the operation is planned	No
Completed Date	When the operation was actually done	No
Assigned To	Which user should perform this	No
Cost	Cost in euros associated with this operation	No
Notes	Additional details or observations	No

Note

The values for Status and Priority are configurable by your organization administrator through the System Configuration. The names shown here are the defaults.

Feeding¶

Record feeding activities for your hives. Feeding records track the type of feed, the quantity provided, the mixing ratio, and which inventory item was used.

Feeding-Specific Fields¶

Field	Description	Required
Feed Type	Type of feed (e.g., sugar syrup, fondant, pollen patty)	Yes
Quantity	Amount of feed in kg or liters	Yes
Ratio	Mixing ratio (e.g., 1:1, 2:1 for sugar syrup)	No
Inventory Item	Supply item taken from your warehouse inventory	Yes

Tip

The Inventory Item field links to your warehouse. You must have supply items of type "Feeding Material" in your inventory before you can create a feeding record. The form will only show items that are in stock.

Common Feed Types¶

Type	Typical Use
Sugar Syrup	Fall feeding, stimulating spring buildup
Fondant	Winter emergency feeding
Pollen Patty	Protein supplement in spring

Creating a Feeding Record¶

Navigate to Feeding in the sidebar, or click New from the feeding list
Select the Hive you are feeding
Choose the Feed Type and select the Inventory Item from your warehouse
Enter the Quantity and optionally a Ratio (e.g., 1:1)
Set the Scheduled Date, Status, and Priority
Optionally assign the task to a user and add notes
Click Save

Treatments¶

Record disease and pest treatments applied to your hives. Treatment records track the treatment type, product used, dosage, and observed effectiveness.

Treatment-Specific Fields¶

Field	Description	Required
Treatment Type	Type of treatment (e.g., varroa, fungal, antibiotic)	Yes
Product	Name of the treatment product (e.g., ApiVar, Apiguard)	Yes
Dosage	Amount and application method (e.g., 2 strips per hive)	No
Treatment Date	Date the treatment was applied	No
Effectiveness	Observed effectiveness (e.g., effective, partially effective, ineffective, unknown)	Yes

Note

The Assigned To field is labelled Execution by on the treatment form, to better reflect who carried out the treatment.

Creating a Treatment Record¶

Navigate to Treatment in the sidebar, or click New from the treatment list
Select the Hive being treated
Choose the Treatment Type and enter the Product name
Optionally enter the Dosage and Treatment Date
Set the Effectiveness, Status, and Priority
Optionally assign the task and add notes
Click Save

Maintenance¶

Record general maintenance work on your hives. Maintenance records track what type of work was done, a description of the work, and what parts or materials were used.

Maintenance-Specific Fields¶

Field	Description	Required
Maintenance Type	Type of maintenance (e.g., repair, cleaning, painting)	Yes
Description	Detailed description of the maintenance performed	Yes
Parts Used	List of parts or materials used	No

Note

The Scheduled Date field is labelled Maintenance Date on the maintenance form.

Creating a Maintenance Record¶

Navigate to Maintenance in the sidebar, or click New from the maintenance list
Select the Hive
Choose the Maintenance Type and write a Description of the work
Optionally list the Parts Used
Set the Status, Priority, and optionally a date
Optionally assign the task and add notes
Click Save

Hive Combines¶

Record when two hives are combined into one. In a combination, one hive (the primary) remains active and absorbs the bees and frames from the other hive (the secondary).

Combine-Specific Fields¶

Field	Description	Required
Primary Hive	The hive that will remain after combining	Yes
Secondary Hive	The hive being merged into the primary hive	Yes
Combination Method	How the combination was done (e.g., newspaper method, direct combination, slow merge)	Yes
Reason	Why the hives were combined (e.g., weak colony, queen failure)	Yes
Frames Transferred	Number of frames moved from secondary to primary	No
Queen Removed	Which queen was removed during combination	No
Successful	Whether the combination was successful	No

Warning

The primary and secondary hives must be different. The form will not allow you to select the same hive for both fields.

Creating a Combine Record¶

Navigate to Combines in the sidebar, or click New from the combines list
Select the Primary Hive (the one that stays) and the Secondary Hive (the one that is absorbed)
Choose the Combination Method and enter the Reason
Optionally record how many frames were transferred and which queen was removed
Set the Status and Priority
Click Save

Quick Create¶

Feeding, treatment, and maintenance operations support a quick create feature. This allows you to create a record with just the essential fields directly from a hive's detail page or the dashboard, without navigating to the full form.

Quick create requires only a few fields:

Feeding: Hive, feed type, quantity, and scheduled date
Treatment: Hive, treatment type, product name, and treatment date
Maintenance: Hive, maintenance type, description, and scheduled date

The record is saved immediately with default values for status and priority. You can edit it later to fill in the remaining fields.

Operation Status Workflow¶

All operations follow a defined status workflow with enforced transitions:

Planned ──→ In Progress ──→ Completed
  │              │
  └──→ Cancelled ←──┘

Planned: Scheduled for the future. Appears in upcoming operations on the dashboard.
In Progress: Currently being worked on.
Completed: Done. This is a terminal state and cannot be changed.
Cancelled: Will not be performed. This is a terminal state and cannot be changed.

Warning

Once an operation is marked as Completed or Cancelled, its status cannot be changed back. Make sure you set the correct status before saving.

Valid Status Transitions¶

From	Can change to
Planned	In Progress, Cancelled
In Progress	Completed, Cancelled
Completed	(no changes allowed)
Cancelled	(no changes allowed)

Filtering and Sorting¶

Filtering¶

Each operation list supports filters to help you find specific records. Use the filter panel at the top of the list page.

Common filters (available on all operation types):

Organization: Filter by a specific organization
Hive: Filter by a specific hive
Status: Filter by status (planned, in progress, completed, cancelled)
Priority: Filter by priority (low, medium, high, urgent)
Date Range: Filter by start date and end date

Type-specific filters:

Feeding: Feed type
Treatment: Treatment type, effectiveness
Maintenance: Maintenance type
Combines: Combination method

Sorting¶

You can sort any operation list by clicking the column headers. Sortable columns vary by operation type:

Feeding: Scheduled date, hive, status, priority, feed type
Treatment: Treatment date, hive, status, priority, treatment type, effectiveness
Maintenance: Scheduled date, hive, status, priority, maintenance type
Combines: Scheduled date, primary hive, secondary hive, status, priority, method

Click a column header once to sort ascending, and again to sort descending.

Operation Photos¶

You can attach photos to any operation (feeding, treatment, maintenance, or combine) for visual documentation. Photos are displayed on the operation's detail page.

Each photo can have an optional caption to describe what is shown.

Permissions¶

Operation permissions follow the organization role system:

Viewers: Can view operations within their organization
Members: Can create operations and edit their own records
Admins and Owners: Can edit and delete any operation within the organization

What's Next¶

Hive Management -- Managing your hives
Inspections -- Recording inspections
Breeding -- Queen breeding programs
Harvests -- Recording harvests
Warehouse -- Managing inventory and supplies