How to Register Your Hives in New Zealand

Registering is the first legal step of keeping bees in New Zealand, and it is simpler than people expect. It is free, it is done through the national apiary register run by AsureQuality, and it is what lets disease be traced if it shows up near you. You must do it within 30 days of getting bees. The wider legal picture sits in our guide to beekeeping rules and the law, while this page walks through the actual process.

What you are registering

There are two things. You register as a beekeeper, which gives you a beekeeper code, and you register each apiary, which is each site where you keep hives. Each apiary gets its own registration number. A backyard keeper with one hive in the back garden has one apiary to register.

The steps

• Register online through the national apiary register before or within 30 days of getting bees
• Provide your contact details and the address or location of the apiary
• Receive your beekeeper code and an apiary registration number
• Keep your details up to date if you move hives or change address
• Complete an annual disease return each year for every apiary

What it costs and what comes next

Registration itself is free. The ongoing cost is the annual American foulbrood levy, charged per beekeeper and per colony, which is modest for a single backyard hive. Once registered you are in the national system, and the main recurring duties are the annual disease return and either holding a DECA or having a DECA holder certify your hives. All of that is explained in the rules and the law guide.

Do not skip registration thinking one hive is too small to matter. The law makes no exception for hobbyists, and an unregistered hive is a gap in the national disease net that protects every other beekeeper, including you.