Creating Your First Hive

A hive record represents a single colony in your apiary. This is where you'll track everything about your bees - from equipment to health records! 🏠

📋 Before You Start

Make sure you have:

  • ✓ At least one apiary created (Learn how)
  • ✓ Basic information about your hive equipment
  • ✓ A way to identify this hive (number, name, or location within the apiary)
1

Navigate to Your Apiary

From your dashboard, click on the apiary where you want to add the hive.

Click the "View Hives" button.

Screenshot: Apiary page with 'Add Hive' button highlighted

Screenshot: Your apiary page with the "Add Hive" button ready to click

2

Click "Create New Hive"

Look for the "Create New Hive" button on your apiary page and click it to open the hive creation form.

3

Fill in Basic Hive Details

Complete the hive information form with your colony details.

Screenshot: Hive creation form with sample data

Screenshot: The hive creation form - comprehensive but easy to use

📋 Hive Information Fields

Basic Details:
  • • Hive Number/Name: How you identify this hive
  • • Hive Type: National, Langstroth, Top Bar, etc.
  • • Material: Wood, plastic, poly, etc.
Equipment Configuration:
  • • Brood Boxes: Number of deep boxes
  • • Supers: Number of honey supers
  • • Queen Excluder: Present or not
4

Save and View Your Hive

Click "Finish" to save your colony and access the hive management page.

Screenshot: Newly created hive page showing configuration and empty inspection log

Screenshot: Your new hive page - ready for inspections and queen records

🎉 Well done! Your hive is now registered in CombCensus. You can see the visual representation of your hive stack and start logging inspections.

🔍 Understanding Your Hive Page

Key Sections

  • Visual Hive Stack:

    Shows your current hive configuration graphically

  • Equipment Status:

    Quick overview of installed equipment

  • Recent Inspections:

    History of your colony observations

Quick Actions

  • Log Inspection:

    Record observations from your latest visit

  • Update Equipment:

    Modify the hive configuration as needed

  • View Analytics:

    Access charts and trends for this hive

👑 What's Next?

Your hive is set up, but every colony needs a queen! The next step is to register your queen so you can track her age, marking, and lineage.

Next: Create Your First Queen → ← Back to Getting Started