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Apiaries & Hives

Last updated on October 26, 2026

Apiaries & Hives is where you create and organize ApiTracer's base hierarchy: an apiary (location) groups hives, and each hive can receive supers during harvest.

Apiaries​

On the website​

Go to Management → Apiaries to:

  • Create a new apiary (name, location, GPS coordinates — later visible on the Map).
  • Edit an apiary's information.
  • Delete an apiary.

On the mobile app​

In the Management → Apiaries tab, find the detailed list of your apiaries with the same features, as well as the option to pick the location directly on a map when creating one.

Hives​

On the website​

Go to Management → Hives to:

  • Add a hive to an apiary.
  • Edit a hive's information.
  • Associate a stock (queen) with a hive (see Queen).

Correcting the apiary ↔ hive history from the website​

If a hive was never placed in an apiary by scanning (for example an older hive that was never moved), or if a transhumance date entered in the field needs correcting afterwards, open the relevant apiary's record from Apiaries or Hives, then the row of the hive to add or edit: you can enter a start date (and an end date) of presence in that apiary directly, with no scan involved. This is a history edit, not a field gesture — reserved for corrections; real moves should still be recorded by transhumance.

Archiving an apiary or a hive​

An apiary or a hive that is no longer in use (sold, closed for the season) can be archived instead of deleted, to remove it from the usual lists and selections without losing its history:

  • Website: from the apiaries or hives list, use the "Archive" / "Unarchive" action of the relevant row.
  • Mobile app (apiaries only): swipe the apiary's row in the Management → Apiaries tab, then confirm.

Archived apiaries and hives remain accessible via the "Archived" filter of the list, and keep all their operation and statistics history.

Supers​

On the website​

Go to Management → Supers to manage your fleet of supers: adding, editing, assigning to a hive. Each super has a type that determines its format.

Why this hierarchy is central​

Apiary → hive → super is the structure that nearly every other feature relies on: an operation is always linked to a hive or an apiary, a harvest links supers to a hive, and the statistics aggregate data along this same hierarchy. Organizing it well from the start — one apiary per real physical location, one hive per colony — avoids having to reorganize data that has already been entered.

How do I organize my herd across several apiaries?​

Spreading colonies across several apiaries rather than concentrating them in a single spot is a common practice, to limit pressure on the same floral resources and spread health or climate risk over several sites. This spread is only useful if tracking stays readable apiary by apiary rather than buried in a single list of all hives. That's why the apiary → hive hierarchy is the first thing to create in ApiTracer: it then makes it possible to view, filter, and aggregate (operations, harvest, statistics) apiary by apiary as well as across the whole operation.