Beehive Numbers - DPI Hive Identification Tags

Mark your registration number properly, once

If you are a registered beekeeper in Australia, your hives need to carry your registration number. It is a biosecurity requirement in most states, and it is the first thing a DPI inspector looks for when they visit an apiary. Plenty of beekeepers handle it with a paint pen or a permanent marker, and plenty of them end up redoing it every season when the sun fades it into a smudge nobody can read.

These beehive numbers solve that properly. They are durable, weather-resistant number tags that fix to the outside of your brood box and stay legible year after year, through rain, UV and the general knocks of apiary life. Use them to display your DPI registration number, or to number individual hives for your own records.

Staying compliant without repainting

Each state words it slightly differently, but the requirement is much the same across Australia: registered hives must display the owner's registration number so they can be traced during a pest or disease outbreak. Varroa response work has made this matter more than ever. A clean set of fixed numbers means your identification is always readable, never half worn away, and never something you have to think about again. Check your own state's rules for exactly where and how the number must be displayed.

Numbering hives for your own records

Beyond compliance, numbered hives make record keeping honest. Hive 4 requeened in October. Hive 7 light on stores. Hive 2 showing chalkbrood. Once every colony has a fixed number, your notes stop being guesswork about which box was which, and decisions about splits, requeening and treatments get easier to track across seasons. Commercial operators already work this way. There is no reason a hobbyist with three hives should not.

Fitted once, readable for years

The numbers are made to live outdoors. They fix securely to the hive body, will not fade like marker or peel like a paper label, and stay put when boxes are stacked, shifted and loaded onto trailers. If you sell a hive or renumber your apiary, they are simple to replace with a fresh set.

Specifications

• Use: DPI registration number display and individual hive numbering
• Material: Weather and UV resistant metal or plastic
• Digits: Available in various number ranges to suit your needs 
• Fixing: Adhesive backing or mounting hardware included 
• Suits: All timber and thermal hive bodies