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Stocks

Last updated on October 26, 2026

A stock represents a queen's genetic line. Managing it in ApiTracer lets you trace its origin and later associate it with a hive (see Queen).

On the website​

Go to Management → Stocks to:

  • Create a new stock, identified by a unique code (required) — the same code later used to associate it with a hive.
  • Enter its genealogy: name, year, and above all the maternal and paternal origin codes, which link a stock to the stocks it comes from.
  • Import several stocks at once via a CSV file (import template downloadable from the page).
  • Edit or deactivate an existing stock — a stock already associated with a hive cannot be deleted, it must first be deactivated.

On the mobile app​

In the Management → Stocks tab, find the list of your stocks and create new ones.

Choosing a stock code wisely​

The stock code also feeds into each queen's QR code (it completes the hive number on the scanned label): always start it with a letter, so it is never confused with a purely numeric code. A good practice is to create one stock per cross per year (for example B24 for a 2024 cross), even if several sister queens are later associated with it; the name field holds the full pedigree if needed. The stock list search looks at both the code and the name: a keyword added at the end of the code (for example -insem for an inseminated queen) then makes it easy to find.

Tracking a genealogy, not just a label​

Thanks to the maternal and paternal origin codes, ApiTracer stocks form a real family tree: you can trace back, stock after stock, to the origin of a lineage. Combined with evaluations and losses recorded hive by hive, this genealogy helps spot the most productive or resilient lines, and guide queen renewal.

How do I decide which queens to renew each year?​

In beekeeping, queens are generally renewed after a few years to keep a colony's vigor and steer the herd toward the lines judged most promising (gentleness, productivity, resilience...) — a decision based on repeated observation of colonies rather than a single one-off assessment.

By linking a stock's genealogy to its evaluations and losses recorded in ApiTracer, it becomes possible to objectively compare several lines from one season to the next before deciding which to breed from — see the corresponding question in the FAQ.