5. Hives

Each hive record represents one physical colony. Its name, type, color marking, and installation date are set when you create it. Box counts and equipment are tracked separately (see 5.5 Boxes / Equipment Configuration), not as part of the hive record itself.

5.1 Adding a Hive

Open an apiary.
Tap the + button.
Fill in the hive name (e.g. "Hive 1", "Nuc A").
Select the hive type: Langstroth, Top Bar, Warre, Flow Hive, National, or Other.
Set the color (optional — useful for quick visual identification at the apiary).
Enter the installation or establishment date.
Tap Save.

A new hive starts with no boxes or equipment recorded. After saving, a "Hive Created" dialog asks whether to set them up now. Choose Set Up Boxes / Equipment to go straight to the hive's Boxes / Equipment Configuration card, or Skip for now to add them later. Either way the hive appears immediately in the apiary's hive list, ready for inspections.

5.2 Hive Detail Screen

Tap a hive card to open its detail screen. This is your main working area for a single colony. It's a single scrolling page of cards, not a set of tabs — in order:

Section	Contents
Header	Hive name, type, color, an "active queen" badge if one is present, establishment date, and last inspection date.
Notes	The hive's own free-text notes field, if you've set one. Edit it from the pencil icon (Edit Hive).
Queen	Current queen record. Tap + to add a queen. The queen score card itself appears on each queen's card on the Queens screen, not here.
Inspections	Full inspection history. Tap + to start a new inspection. Tap any record to view its detail.
Hive Advisor	Suggested actions based on your latest inspection data, when Hive Advisor is enabled in Account Settings.
Supers	Read-only history of honey supers on this hive. Adding or removing equipment goes through Boxes / Equipment Configuration below.
Boxes / Equipment Configuration	See 5.5 Boxes / Equipment Configuration.
Treatments	All treatment records for this hive, including those entered via the inspection form.
Hive Notes	Notes, tasks, and reminders attached to this hive from the Notes feature. Completed tasks/reminders and general notes older than 90 days are hidden here (still in the full Notes list).
Hive History	Timeline of significant events: splits, combines, queen changes, inactivation.

5.3 Editing a Hive

Tap the pencil icon in the top right of the hive detail screen to edit the hive. You can update the name, type, color, and installation date. Box counts and equipment are managed separately through the Boxes / Equipment Configuration card (see 5.5 Boxes / Equipment Configuration), not through this edit screen. The three-dot menu (⋮) gives access to Delete and Mark as Inactive.

These two options behave very differently. Mark as Inactive is reversible: the hive and all its records stay in your account, moved out of the active list, and you can reactivate it any time (see 8.4 Inactive Hives). Delete is permanent and immediate, and does not require marking the hive inactive first. It removes the hive along with its inspections, queen records, notes, harvests, treatments, and equipment records, and cannot be undone.

5.4 Sorting the Hive List

The hive list inside each apiary can be sorted using the sort icon (sort) in the top-right corner of the screen. Tap it to choose a sort order:

Sort option	How it works
Name (default)	Alphabetical order. Numbers sort numerically so "Hive 2" appears before "Hive 10".
Last Inspection	Most recently inspected hive first. Hives never inspected appear at the bottom.

The sort is applied in addition to the Active/Inactive/All filter — use both together to quickly find the hive needing attention soonest.

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Note: Each hive card shows a Frames stat that only counts boxes with a recorded frame capacity. A "+" after the number means at least one box on that hive still has an unrecorded capacity — use Classify Equipment on the hive detail screen to record it.

5.5 Boxes / Equipment Configuration

Below the Supers section on the hive detail screen, the "Boxes / Equipment Configuration" card tracks how many boxes are currently on the hive by quantity, with dated history. It has no concept of an individual box's identity. That's what the Supers section above it is for, and it now shows historical records only. Current counts are grouped three ways:

Role — Brood Box or Super.
Size — Shallow, Medium, Deep, Other, or Unspecified. Either role can be any size, so a medium brood box and a medium super are counted separately. Unspecified is a real, selectable size for legacy boxes predating size tracking. Use the Classify Equipment icon to move a count out of it once you know the true size.
Frame Capacity — how many frames the box holds (8, 10, and so on). Optional: leave it blank for equipment whose capacity you haven't recorded, and Bee Inspector tracks it as "Unknown frames" until you correct it.

Current Configuration shows a chip per role/size/capacity combination that has a nonzero count, for example "Deep · 10-frame: 2". Three icons on the card handle every change:

Adjust (tune icon) — add or remove boxes, or correct the current count directly:
1. Choose the Box Role, Box Size, and optionally the Frame Capacity.
2. Choose Add, Remove, or Set Total. Set Total is useful for correcting a count directly — enter the true number and Bee Inspector works out the add/remove for you.
3. Enter the quantity, set the effective date, and optionally add a reason and notes.
4. Tap Save.
When you add a Super and the hive already has an unambiguous frame capacity recorded for that size (or for supers generally), the Frame Capacity field pre-fills that value, still editable. If the capacity you enter doesn't match anything else already recorded on the hive, a non-blocking "Mixed Frame Capacity" warning asks you to confirm before saving.
Remove Equipment (circle-minus icon) — pick an existing box from a list of everything currently recorded on the hive instead of typing its role, size, and capacity. Tapping one opens Adjust pre-filled to Remove mode for that exact box.
Classify Equipment (swap icon) — move a quantity from one role/size/capacity combination to another without changing the hive's overall total, for example correcting a box that was entered as a Super into a Brood Box, or giving an "Unknown frames" box its real capacity once you know it.

Every change is kept in the Configuration History below the current counts, with its date, quantity, and reason. Equipment moved during a split or combine also shows a "Moved to/from [hive]" note (see 8.1 Splitting a Hive and 8.3 Combining Hives). This card is independent of Harvest — use it any time you add equipment, consolidate boxes, or need to correct a count, whether or not you're recording a harvest at the same time (see 10.3 Removing Boxes When You Harvest).