21. Hive Advisor
Hive Advisor reads your inspection data and flags issues worth acting on. It is a rules-based suggestion engine — no AI, no guesswork. Every suggestion is derived directly from the numbers and observations you enter, matched against evidence-based thresholds from apiculture research and best practice.
All Hive Advisor features are free for every Bee Inspector account.
21.1 What Is Hive Advisor?
Hive Advisor evaluates your inspections against a set of rules covering six common colony health concerns: swarm risk, queen and brood status, mite pressure, stores adequacy, pest detection, and inspection timing. Most rules check the inspection you just recorded; some look for patterns across your last several visits and your treatment history instead — a declining brood pattern trend, an aging queen, mites that didn't drop after a treatment, and so on.
Each rule produces a suggestion card with:
- A severity colour — Urgent (red), Attention (orange), Info (blue), or Positive (green).
- A short title describing the issue.
- A plain-language explanation of what was found and what to consider doing.
- The specific evidence from your inspection that triggered the rule.
21.2 Where Suggestions Appear
Suggestions appear in two places:
- Post-inspection panel — immediately after you save a new inspection, a panel slides up showing any active suggestions. Review them while the inspection is fresh in your mind and dismiss anything you have already addressed.
- Hive overview card — on the hive detail screen, a "Hive Advisor" card sits above the Supers section. It shows suggestions from your most recent inspection plus any trend-based rules that fire from your last several inspections and treatment history. The card does not appear when there are no active suggestions.
21.3 Rule Categories
Swarm Risk
| Rule | Condition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| SW-01 | Charged swarm cells — eggs or larvae already present | Urgent |
| SW-01b | Swarm cups noted but empty — no eggs or larvae yet | Info |
| SW-02 | Charged queen cells present but not classified as swarm or supersedure | Attention |
| SW-03 | Strong or Very Strong colony covering 80%+ of brood-box frames during swarm season, with no swarm cells already noted | Attention |
Queen & Brood
| Rule | Condition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| QB-01 | No queen, eggs, or larvae seen — possible queenlessness | Urgent |
| QB-02 | No eggs seen but larvae present — queen may have stopped laying | Attention |
| QB-03 | Charged supersedure cells — eggs or larvae already present | Attention |
| QB-03b | Supersedure cups noted but empty | Info |
| QB-04 | Brood pattern rated Spotty or Poor on this inspection | Info |
| QB-10 | Brood pattern declining across the last three inspections, ending at Spotty or worse | Attention |
| QB-11 | Queen over two years old showing a decline signal — a declining brood trend, a current Spotty or Poor pattern, or recent supersedure cells | Info |
| QB-12 | Two consecutive inspections, at least three days apart, both showing no queen, eggs, or larvae | Urgent |
| TMP-10 | Temperament shifted to Defensive or Aggressive on the last two inspections, after an earlier calmer reading | Info |
QB-01 and QB-02 are suppressed for newly introduced queens (within 30 days of the introduction date), after recent splits (within 30 days), and whenever queen cells or supersedure cells are already present on this inspection. QB-12 reuses the exact same suppressions, checked against each of the two inspections in question.
Mite Pressure
| Rule | Condition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| MT-01 | Mite wash result at or above the Honey Bee Health Coalition (HBHC) action threshold for the colony's current phase (1% during Dormant/Population Increase, 2% during Peak Population/Population Decrease) | Urgent |
| MT-03 | Varroa mites seen visually on this inspection but no mite wash recorded | Attention |
| MT-10 | No mite wash recorded in the last 30 days, outside the Dormant phase | Attention |
| MT-11 | More than 14 days since a Varroa treatment with no follow-up mite wash recorded | Attention |
| MT-12 | Mite wash after a Varroa treatment did not drop from the wash taken before it | Urgent |
| MT-14 | Mite wash result of 0% — a reminder, not a clean bill of health | Info |
Stores & Feeding
| Rule | Condition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| FD-01 | Honey stores rated Empty | Urgent |
| FD-02 | Honey stores rated Low | Urgent heading into fall, Attention otherwise |
| FD-03 | Pollen stores rated Empty or Low during spring buildup | Info |
| FD-04 | Marked Needs Feed, independent of a recorded honey stores level (does not also fire alongside FD-01/FD-02) | Attention |
| FD-10 | Latest recorded stores Empty or Low in September or October | Urgent |
Pests
| Rule | Condition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| PS-01 | Small Hive Beetle recorded | Attention |
| PS-02 | Wax Moths recorded | Attention |
Inspection Timing
| Rule | Condition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| HC-01 | More than 14 days since the last inspection, during the active season (suppressed in winter) | Info |
21.4 Dismissing Suggestions
Tap the X on any suggestion card to dismiss it. Dismissals are synced to your account so they persist across devices and sessions.
A dismissed suggestion will not reappear for that specific inspection. If the same issue is still present when you record your next inspection, Hive Advisor will flag it again based on the new data.
21.5 Beekeeper Region
Some rules are season-specific — for example, mite warnings are more urgent in late summer when there is still brood to treat before winter. To enable seasonal rules, tell the app where you keep your bees:
- Go to Account → Preferences.
- Tap Beekeeper Region.
- Select the option that best matches your location.
| Region | Examples |
|---|---|
| Northern Temperate | Canada, USA, UK, Europe, Northern Asia |
| Southern Temperate | Southern Australia, South Africa, temperate South America |
| Southern Hemisphere | New Zealand, Southern Chile and Argentina |
| Tropical / Year-Round | Central America, Northern Australia, Southeast Asia |
Leave the region unset and season-specific rules still run — the mite-wash threshold (MT-01), for example, just uses its strictest, earliest-warning setting year-round instead of one tuned to your season. SW-03 (crowding during swarm season) and HC-01 (inspection overdue) are the two rules that need a region set to fire at all, since neither has a safe default without knowing your season.
21.6 Suppression Logic
Hive Advisor suppresses rules in specific situations to avoid spurious warnings:
- New queen (within 30 days) — brood-absence rules (QB-01, QB-02, QB-12) are suppressed. A newly introduced queen needs up to 30 days from introduction before she is expected to be laying confirmed workers.
- Recent split (within 30 days) — swarm-risk and brood-absence rules are suppressed, since the split colony will be building up from a small population.
- Active queen cells — QB-01, QB-02, and QB-12 are suppressed when swarm cells or supersedure cells are already flagged, to avoid duplicate alerts.
- Already dismissed — dismissed suggestions are hidden for the current inspection.
- Season — rules tagged as seasonal only fire in the relevant part of the year for your Beekeeper Region.
21.7 Turning Hive Advisor Off
If you prefer not to see suggestions, go to Account → Preferences and toggle off Hive Advisor. The post-inspection panel will not appear and the hive overview card will be hidden. Toggle it back on at any time to resume advice.