Changelog | ColonyTrack

August 2026

New Your free trial starts when you sign up. Sixty days, up to twenty hives and five yards, with a sample hive already in place so you can see what a season of records actually looks like before you have one of your own.
New Bee signs at the entrance. Record crawling bees, dysentery, mummies, debris on the board, or a dead queen without turning the detail up. A dead queen at the entrance usually means the colony has already swarmed, and now you can log it.
New Food within reach of the brood. What sat within reach of the brood nest is now a chart you can read across the season, so a nest that keeps running bare shows up as a pattern rather than a feeling.
New Record a confirmed foulbrood identification. For a diagnosis an inspector or a laboratory has already made. The app records it, it does not diagnose it.
New The time you were at the hive, not just the day. Two readings taken at nine in the morning and five in the afternoon are not the same reading, and now they can be compared fairly.
Improved The inspection form was rebuilt to be worked one-handed. Save now stays at the bottom of the screen instead of waiting at the end of a very long form, Back is always on screen at both the top and the bottom, and the tab bar is hidden while an inspection is open so nothing next to your thumb can lose the record.
Improved Leaving an inspection asks first. Walking away from unsaved answers, including with the Android back button, now asks before throwing an hour of work away.
Improved Long questions stopped running down half the screen. Buttons are the same height to tap with gloves on, just narrower, so more fit on a line, and questions where you pick several answers line up in two columns.
Improved Readable in direct sun. The answer you picked was washing out to almost nothing behind a veil. It holds its contrast now.
Improved The hive overview leads with what needs a look and folds the normal readings away. It also tells you when a reading is old, so a green tick from six weeks ago no longer reads as today's news.
Improved Guidance updated to match how it is taught. The mite wash now says to swirl gently rather than shake, because shaking stirs mites back into the bees and undercounts them, and to use 90% alcohol or Dawn Ultra. Requeening now says to remove the old queen at least 48 hours ahead, rather than 24.
Fix The hive overview no longer reports findings for questions nobody answered. Checked and found nothing is a real answer; never asked is not, and the two were being confused.
Fix Yes and No now read the right way round on questions where yes is the problem, like a backfilled brood nest, and answering No no longer switches the question above it to Yes.
Fix Typing a number no longer closes the keyboard. The count fields were losing focus after every single digit.
Fix On Android, an update that landed while your screen was locked no longer leaves the app spinning and downloading itself over and over.
Fix Event markers on the charts are no longer cut off. A requeen or a treatment now says which it is, instead of leaving an unexplained line through the data.

July 2026

New Multiple yards (Pro). Run more than one apiary from a single account. Each yard keeps its own hives, map, and stats, and you swipe between them right from the home screen.
New All-yards view. A new All Yards mode rolls up totals and season trends across every yard, with a yard-vs-yard comparison so you can see which location is ahead.
New Stats on the free plan. Every beekeeper now gets a snapshot of their apiary's key numbers. Pro unlocks the full multi-yard trends and the yard comparison.
New Inspection photos on iPhone. Attach photos to an inspection straight from the iPhone camera or photo library, the same as Android.
Improved Pro now covers 100 hives, up from 60.
Improved Clearer upgrade screen. The Pro page is now a side-by-side Free vs Pro comparison, so you can see exactly what each plan includes at a glance.
Fix Apiary stats now render for accounts created before the multiple-yards update. Older hives are counted correctly instead of showing an empty stats page.

June 6 2026

New Queen Bee Lifecycle Engine. Spot a queen cup or cell, log the stage, and the app runs the real queen-development clock, counting down through capped, emerged, and mating to the exact day to check for eggs. One timeline handles supersedure and swarm cells, walk-away and queen-cell splits, emergency queens, and caged mated-queen installs.
New Caged queen release check. Installing a mated queen in a cage now asks whether she was released before the egg countdown begins, and re-arms the check if she hasn't been yet.
New Queen lifecycle push reminders (Pro). Pro members get a push the moment an egg-check or other queen window is about to open.
New Free mite-check reminders. Every beekeeper gets mite-wash reminders plus a post-treatment follow-up wash, on the free plan.
Improved Accurate cup vs cell language. The app now distinguishes a charged "cup" from a capped "cell" throughout, so a normal empty cup doesn't read like an emergency.
Improved Focused queen actions: tight check-for-eggs, check-capped, and recheck-cells forms when you only came to do one thing, instead of a full routine check.

May 28 2026

New In-app subscriptions on iPhone. Upgrade to Pro right inside the app via Apple's in-app purchase, billed through your Apple ID. Restore Purchases button reconciles your account after a reinstall or device switch.
New iPhone NFC tag support. Bind, scan, and write NFC tags from iOS, the same way Android already worked. Tap a hive's tag with your phone to open the record straight away.
New Tap to open from anywhere. A blank NFC tap on your iPhone now opens ColonyTrack instead of Safari, via Universal Links. Works whether the app is closed or already running.
New NFC from the home Quick Actions. One-tap shortcut from the home screen to start an NFC scan, gloves-friendly.
New Care tab on the hive overview. Active treatments, feeders, and grouped notices live in their own tab so they don't crowd the at-a-glance view.
New Native print on iPhone. Print a QR sheet from the app via the system print dialog, no more "dead button" on iOS Safari.
New Pro tier (renamed). The paid tier is now called Pro everywhere. Same features, clearer name. Existing Smart Beekeeper subscribers carry over automatically.
New Branded iOS splash. Custom amber splash screen with the hex bee logo replaces the default white flash on launch.
New Maintenance mode. Operator-controlled global toggle for planned downtime: shows a friendly message instead of a half-broken app while migrations run.
Improved Alerts and Notifications unified into one label: Notices. Same content, same place, consistent name across the home bell, modal, and hive page.
Improved Inspection-overdue notice now amber (warning), not red. Matches the urgency it actually signals.
Improved Reminders panel auto-expands when no urgent alerts are competing for attention.
Improved Free-tier overflow hives are strictly gated: view, NFC, and QR scan all blocked until the user upgrades or reduces hive count. No partial access.
Improved Sign-up form on iOS shows native Google and Apple buttons instead of the web fallback.
Improved Settings back buttons return to the screen you actually came from, not always Settings.
Improved Native sign-out lands on the auth chooser, not the sign-in form. One tap to switch accounts.
Fix "Is she the same queen?" prompt is now hidden unless your queen is marked. No point asking if you can't tell anyway.
Fix "None seen" pest pill now clears a previously logged infestation, instead of stacking with it.
Fix NFC scan now accepts both the old URL-path format and the new query-string format. Tags printed before the rewrite still work.
Fix Rebind NFC button is now visible on already-bound hives. Useful when you replace a tag.
Fix Water option restored in the Start-new-feed dropdown.
Fix Inspections save and back-to-hive both fixed on iPhone. Two regressions from an earlier WKWebView routing change.
Fix User cache invalidated on sign-in so a tier change made in another tab or device shows up immediately.
Fix Requeen follow-up notice dismisses itself once eggs are confirmed in a later inspection.
Fix "Wrong type?" link on the queen-cells notice now jumps straight to edit, not the timeline.

May 19 2026

New Per-hive photos. Upload a photo for each hive. Shows as an avatar on the hive view and gives every hive card on the home screen an edge-to-edge cover image.
New Apiary map. Pin your apiary's location and see three concentric foraging rings (1, 3, and 5 miles or km). Set the spot via address search, drop a pin on the map, or use your phone's GPS. Location stays private to your account.
New Apiary photo banner. Add a landscape photo of your yard at the top of the home screen. Tap the pencil next to the apiary name to edit it.
New 8-frame vs 10-frame hives. New profile setting for your default box size, with a per-hive override on new and existing hives. Feeds future capacity math.
New Drawn vs undrawn comb picker. When you add supers during an inspection, choose drawn comb or fresh foundation. Beginners get a quick reminder to sugar-spray frames and skip the queen excluder for the first few weeks.
Improved Home screen layout. Apiary name sits above the photo banner, and Alerts, Stats, and Map share a single action row underneath.
Improved Feed type labels on the home screen now show readable names like "Pollen Patty" and "1:1 Syrup" instead of raw values.
Improved Queenless alerts no longer fire spuriously on brand new swarms, cutouts, and splits during their first 28 days. A virgin queen needs time to mate.
Improved Faster home screen on apiary load. Caching pass cleaned up several over-fetches and reduced the upgrade-gate flash on slow connections.
Fix Error pages no longer expose raw stack traces. Friendly retry with a support reference for follow-up.
Fix Treatment alerts no longer fire for hives that already have an active treatment running.

Apr 20 2026

New Apiary dashboard: three tabs (Overview, Trends, Compare) with drill-downs on Colonies, Queens, Active treatments, and Varroa. Tap any KPI to see the specific hives behind the number.
New Best all-around hive: Compare tab ranks your top 3 hives across Varroa, Temperament, and Honey Production with a combined rank-sum score. Only hives with data on every active metric are eligible: no pity prizes.
New Shareable mentor report: generate a tokenized read-only link to share a hive's recent inspections (with photos) with a mentor or bee-club contact. No ColonyTrack account needed on their end. 14-day expiry, revokable anytime. Pro feature.
New Supersedure event tracking: during a routine check, tell the app if the queen you're seeing is the same one or a new daughter. The hive's trait data gets a red marker at that date on all trend charts, the queen's breed is remapped to the open-mated daughter variant, and the Best all-around ranking flags the hive with ⚠️ so you know not to graft from a queen whose performance reflects her mother's work.
New Per-hive Varroa line chart: every hive's mite counts plotted together across the season, with the treatment threshold line overlaid. See which hive is trending the wrong way at a glance.
New Frames of brood tracking: log how many frames of brood you see during routine checks with a glove-friendly stepper. Feeds a per-hive line chart showing colony buildup over the season.
New Treatment removal: one-tap "Mark as removed today" button on active treatments. No more editing inspection history when you pulled strips early.
New Temperament season chart: per-hive temperament over time, calm at the bottom and defensive at the top. A rising line means the hive is getting hotter.
Improved Home page notifications moved to a bell icon with a count badge: tapping opens a bottom-sheet drawer. No more alert block pushing the hive list down.
Improved Apiary stats load in a single request and are cached on the server with mutation-driven invalidation: the dashboard feels instant after the first load.
Improved Home page performance: hive cards no longer preload their detail pages on render. Apiaries with many hives load significantly faster.

Apr 17 2026

New Colony strength chart: bar chart with trend line showing how your colony's strength changes over time
New Inspection date picker: choose the date when logging an inspection (defaults to today, can't be future)
New Compact grid layout: apiaries with 10+ hives auto-switch to a 2-column mini card view
New Varroa alert links to treatment guide: "Choose a treatment" link on the mite threshold warning takes you straight to the guided treatment picker
Improved Alerts restructured: urgent alerts (mites, queenless, treatment overdue) always visible, warnings and reminders collapse into a single expandable section
Improved Scroll position restored when navigating back to the home screen from a hive
Improved API performance: added .lean() to all hot Mongoose queries, reducing serialization overhead
Improved Mite check sample size fixed at 300 bees (standard half-cup): removed the confusing dropdown
Fix Temperament chart legend showed "aggressive" instead of "defensive": now matches the actual data
Fix Green drone frame moved from mite check guide to varroa treatment knowledge base where it belongs

Apr 11 2026

New Frame of eggs as a requeen source: log when you gave a queenless hive a frame of eggs to raise their own queen. Triggers the correct 28-day timeline with day-by-day guidance (don't disturb → mating → check for eggs)
New Delete inspection: available in edit mode. Removes the record and clears related caches
New Sentry error monitoring: errors and performance traces captured automatically in production
New Bug report button: tap Report in the bottom nav or profile page to send feedback with a screenshot directly from the app
New Pest knowledge base articles: wax moths, small hive beetles, ants, wasps, and mice. Linked from the hive overview pest card
Improved Inspect button is now a full-width sticky bar pinned above the bottom nav: always visible, never requires scrolling
Improved Queen color chart corrected to the international standard (1/6 White, 2/7 Yellow, 3/8 Red, 4/9 Green, 5/0 Blue)
Improved Queen marking action now appears in inspection history for routine checks
Improved Pests seen during inspection logged in history with a badge. KB links shown on the post-save screen and hive overview instead of mid-inspection
Improved Requeening follow-up notices on home screen now use the correct timeline for frame-of-eggs vs. mated queen introductions
Improved Varroa alerts suppressed when a colony is queenless or actively requeening
Improved Voice dictation deduplication: duplicate transcripts within 3 seconds are dropped. Fresh recognition instance on each restart prevents Android Chrome from re-delivering buffered results
Improved Significant performance improvements: API response times reduced by 60-70% on warm requests. Redis connection kept hot across requests, JWT session no longer hits the database on every API call, Prisma connection pool tuned
Improved Rate limiting now uses the real client IP (via Cloudflare) instead of the pod gateway IP
Fix QR scan success notice now dismisses after 2 seconds instead of 10
Fix iOS blank space after saving an inspection: page now scrolls to top on the success screen
Fix Hive cache not busting after editing hive details: stale data no longer shown on QR scan after an edit

Apr 2026

New Combine hives goal: merge a weaker colony into a stronger one with guided newspaper method, brood box option, and queen resolution. The donor colony is permanently absorbed and removed from your hive list
New Queen resolution on combine: choose which queen survives (receiver's, donor's, or let them sort it out). Hive queen status updates automatically
New Combine event in history: rich timeline card showing the merge arrow, donor colony snapshot at time of combine (frames, queen, origin, inspection count), method, and queen outcome. The story lives on even after the donor is gone
New Email + password login: register and sign in with a password. Magic link email is now used for verification and password reset only. Google login remains available
New Change password from profile: update your password at any time. Google users can set a password without needing a current one
New Population tracking: log frames of bees during routine checks with a glove-friendly stepper
New Population reference guide: visual examples from 1 frame to 8+ so you know what strong looks like
New Population card on hive overview: color-coded red/amber/green based on last recorded count
New Young larvae tracking: independent toggle in routine check, separate from eggs seen
New Hive lineage tree: splits are tracked as parent → child relationships, toggle between list and tree view on the apiary home screen
New Queenless alert system: two consecutive routine checks with no eggs or larvae triggers a warning on the hive and on the apiary home screen
New Requeen details in inspection history: breed, source, supplier, marked status, and color now shown in the timeline
New NFC tag support: tap an NFC sticker on any hive to open it directly, no QR scan required
Improved Voice dictation button is now significantly larger for reliable glove-on use
Improved Hive creation blocks future dates
Fix Queenless counter now resets correctly after requeening: only inspections after the new queen was introduced are counted

Mar 2026

New Beta launched: invite-code gated, beta agreement gate, 20 founding beekeepers
New Subscription tiers: Free (2 hives) and Pro $4.99/mo (15 hives)
New QR batch generation: print a full sheet of QR stickers for your entire apiary
New Super fullness tracking: log per-super fill percentage during inspections
New Harvest recording: log weight and supers removed, tracked in hive history
New Hive alerts on apiary home: red cards for queenless hives, overdue mite checks, and active swarm risk
New PDF inspection report: downloadable summary of all inspections per hive
New CSV export: full inspection history as a spreadsheet, free for all users
New Beginner journey: onboarding flow for first-year beekeepers with guided knowledge base
New Knowledge base: built-in guides covering brood, eggs, queen cells, mites, temperament, and stores with reference photos
New Voice dictation for inspection notes: glove-friendly, no typing required
New Goal-driven inspections: 14 inspection goals, each with a focused checklist
New Varroa management flow: guided mite check, treatment logging, treatment window tracking
New Swarm prevention goal: assess risk and log preventive actions
New Split hive flow: guided split with brood/honey frame counts, new hive auto-creation
Improved Hive overview derives each field from the most recent inspection that recorded it: no data lost between visits
Improved Photo lightbox with pinch-to-zoom on mobile for reference guide images