HiveLink, The Most Flexible Beehive Monitor on the Market
HiveLink is a fully open-source beehive monitoring system designed for beekeepers who want real data from their hives without being locked into a single ecosystem. Both the PCB and the software are open source, so you're free to build, modify, and adapt it to your needs.
What it monitors
HiveLink tracks the vital signs of your hive: sound (a key indicator of colony health and swarming behavior), CO₂, humidity, and temperature. When configured with a SIM, it also reports its own location, so if a hive or device is stolen, you can track it down.
Why monitoring matters
A healthy hive is a finely tuned environment, and small changes often signal big events long before you'd spot them by opening the lid. Monitoring lets you catch problems early, intervene less invasively, and learn what "normal" actually looks like for your specific colonies.
- Sound is one of the most powerful early-warning signals in beekeeping. The pitch and intensity of a colony's hum changes before swarming, when the queen is lost, during robbing, and when the colony is stressed. Listening continuously catches things a weekly inspection never will.
- Temperature inside the brood nest is held remarkably steady at around 34 to 35 °C when the colony is healthy. Drift outside that range can indicate a failing queen, brood disease, absconding, or a colony that's too weak to thermoregulate.
- Humidity affects everything from brood development to nectar curing to the spread of pathogens like chalkbrood and Nosema. Tracking it helps you understand ventilation and seasonal moisture issues before they damage the colony.
- CO₂ levels reflect colony activity, population size, and ventilation. Sudden changes can point to overcrowding, blocked entrances, or shifts in colony behavior, and long-term trends give you a window into colony strength across the seasons.
- Location tracking matters because hive theft is a real and growing problem, especially for commercial operations and rare or productive colonies. Knowing where your hive is, and getting alerted if it moves, protects both your investment and your bees.
Beyond individual hives, every monitored colony adds to a bigger picture. Long-term data helps beekeepers, researchers, and the wider community understand how bees respond to climate, pesticides, forage availability, and disease. These are questions that matter well beyond any single apiary.
Power your way
Whether your hives are in a remote field or next to a workshop or home, HiveLink fits your setup:
- Solar with battery bank, for off-grid apiaries
- USB-C direct power, plug it in wherever mains power is available
- Battery pack, we're designing an accompanying custom battery pack, aiming for a full year of life on a single pack
Send data your way
This is where HiveLink really stands apart. Each mode comes with its own strengths. Pick the one that fits how you work, or mix and match across hives.
1. Local mode The device hosts its own Wi-Fi network. Connect directly with your phone or laptop to view live and historical data, with no internet, no SIM, and no cloud required.
- Fully offline; nothing ever leaves the device
- Live readings and on-device historical logging
- Works anywhere in the world, no signal needed
- Perfect for remote apiaries or privacy-conscious beekeepers
2. SIM + custom API Use a cheap IoT SIM to push data packets to whatever platform or software you like, via a fully documented API.
- Send data to your own server, dashboard, or third-party service
- Full API documentation so you can build whatever you want on top
- Ideal for self-hosters, developers, and researchers running custom pipelines
- Compatible with tools like InfluxDB, Grafana, MQTT brokers, and more
3. SIM direct to Evocultiva.org Send your data straight to our platform to view, store, and analyse it.
- Push notifications direct to your phone for swarm alerts, temperature drops, theft warnings, and more
- Clean web dashboard with historical graphs and side-by-side hive comparison
- Multi-hive and multi-apiary management from one account
- Configurable alert thresholds so you only hear about what matters
- Your data contributes (anonymously) to open-source beehive research, and we will never sell it
4. Home Assistant integration Connects via ESPHome, so HiveLink slots straight into your smart home setup.
- Native sensor entities for sound, CO₂, humidity, and temperature
- Build automations: trigger notifications, log to your own database, flash a light when something's off
- Combine hive data with weather, cameras, or other sensors in one dashboard
- Fully local, no cloud dependency
Plug and play, or fully self-hosted
HiveLink is built for both ends of the spectrum. If you just want it to work, plug it in, point it at Evocultiva.org, and you're up and running in minutes. If you care about data privacy and want full control, you can run everything locally or self-host the backend on your own infrastructure, so your data never has to leave your network. The choice is yours, and switching between modes doesn't require new hardware.
Open source, by design
The schematics, PCB files, and firmware are all publicly available. Build one yourself, contribute improvements, or fork it for your own project. HiveLink exists because beekeeping deserves tools that beekeepers actually own.
HiveLink, The Most Flexible Beehive Monitor on the Market
HiveLink is a fully open-source beehive monitoring system designed for beekeepers who want real data from their hives without being locked into a single ecosystem. Both the PCB and the software are open source, so you're free to build, modify, and adapt it to your needs.
What it monitors
HiveLink tracks the vital signs of your hive: sound (a key indicator of colony health and swarming behavior), CO₂, humidity, and temperature. When configured with a SIM, it also reports its own location, so if a hive or device is stolen, you can track it down.
Why monitoring matters
A healthy hive is a finely tuned environment, and small changes often signal big events long before you'd spot them by opening the lid. Monitoring lets you catch problems early, intervene less invasively, and learn what "normal" actually looks like for your specific colonies.
- Sound is one of the most powerful early-warning signals in beekeeping. The pitch and intensity of a colony's hum changes before swarming, when the queen is lost, during robbing, and when the colony is stressed. Listening continuously catches things a weekly inspection never will.
- Temperature inside the brood nest is held remarkably steady at around 34 to 35 °C when the colony is healthy. Drift outside that range can indicate a failing queen, brood disease, absconding, or a colony that's too weak to thermoregulate.
- Humidity affects everything from brood development to nectar curing to the spread of pathogens like chalkbrood and Nosema. Tracking it helps you understand ventilation and seasonal moisture issues before they damage the colony.
- CO₂ levels reflect colony activity, population size, and ventilation. Sudden changes can point to overcrowding, blocked entrances, or shifts in colony behavior, and long-term trends give you a window into colony strength across the seasons.
- Location tracking matters because hive theft is a real and growing problem, especially for commercial operations and rare or productive colonies. Knowing where your hive is, and getting alerted if it moves, protects both your investment and your bees.
Beyond individual hives, every monitored colony adds to a bigger picture. Long-term data helps beekeepers, researchers, and the wider community understand how bees respond to climate, pesticides, forage availability, and disease. These are questions that matter well beyond any single apiary.
Power your way
Whether your hives are in a remote field or next to a workshop or home, HiveLink fits your setup:
- Solar with battery bank, for off-grid apiaries
- USB-C direct power, plug it in wherever mains power is available
- Battery pack, we're designing an accompanying custom battery pack, aiming for a full year of life on a single pack
Send data your way
This is where HiveLink really stands apart. Each mode comes with its own strengths. Pick the one that fits how you work, or mix and match across hives.
1. Local mode The device hosts its own Wi-Fi network. Connect directly with your phone or laptop to view live and historical data, with no internet, no SIM, and no cloud required.
- Fully offline; nothing ever leaves the device
- Live readings and on-device historical logging
- Works anywhere in the world, no signal needed
- Perfect for remote apiaries or privacy-conscious beekeepers
2. SIM + custom API Use a cheap IoT SIM to push data packets to whatever platform or software you like, via a fully documented API.
- Send data to your own server, dashboard, or third-party service
- Full API documentation so you can build whatever you want on top
- Ideal for self-hosters, developers, and researchers running custom pipelines
- Compatible with tools like InfluxDB, Grafana, MQTT brokers, and more
3. SIM direct to Evocultiva.org Send your data straight to our platform to view, store, and analyse it.
- Push notifications direct to your phone for swarm alerts, temperature drops, theft warnings, and more
- Clean web dashboard with historical graphs and side-by-side hive comparison
- Multi-hive and multi-apiary management from one account
- Configurable alert thresholds so you only hear about what matters
- Your data contributes (anonymously) to open-source beehive research, and we will never sell it
4. Home Assistant integration Connects via ESPHome, so HiveLink slots straight into your smart home setup.
- Native sensor entities for sound, CO₂, humidity, and temperature
- Build automations: trigger notifications, log to your own database, flash a light when something's off
- Combine hive data with weather, cameras, or other sensors in one dashboard
- Fully local, no cloud dependency
Plug and play, or fully self-hosted
HiveLink is built for both ends of the spectrum. If you just want it to work, plug it in, point it at Evocultiva.org, and you're up and running in minutes. If you care about data privacy and want full control, you can run everything locally or self-host the backend on your own infrastructure, so your data never has to leave your network. The choice is yours, and switching between modes doesn't require new hardware.
Open source, by design
The schematics, PCB files, and firmware are all publicly available. Build one yourself, contribute improvements, or fork it for your own project. HiveLink exists because beekeeping deserves tools that beekeepers actually own.
HiveLink, el monitor de colmenas más flexible del mercado
HiveLink es un sistema de monitorización de colmenas totalmente de código abierto, diseñado para apicultores que quieren datos reales de sus colmenas sin quedar atados a un único ecosistema. Tanto la PCB como el software son de código abierto, así que tienes total libertad para construirlo, modificarlo y adaptarlo a tus necesidades.
Qué mide
HiveLink registra los signos vitales de tu colmena: sonido (un indicador clave de la salud de la colonia y del comportamiento de enjambrazón), CO₂, humedad y temperatura. Cuando se configura con una SIM, también informa de su propia ubicación, así que si te roban una colmena o un dispositivo, puedes localizarlo.
Por qué es importante monitorizar
Una colmena sana es un entorno finamente equilibrado, y los pequeños cambios suelen anticipar grandes acontecimientos mucho antes de que se detecten al abrir la tapa. Monitorizar te permite detectar problemas a tiempo, intervenir de forma menos invasiva y aprender qué es realmente "normal" para tus colonias concretas.
- El sonido es una de las señales de alerta temprana más potentes en apicultura. El tono y la intensidad del zumbido de una colonia cambian antes de la enjambrazón, cuando se pierde la reina, durante un pillaje y cuando la colonia está estresada. Escuchar de forma continua detecta cosas que una inspección semanal nunca verá.
- La temperatura dentro del nido de cría se mantiene notablemente estable en torno a los 34 a 35 °C cuando la colonia está sana. Una desviación fuera de ese rango puede indicar una reina fallida, enfermedades de la cría, abandono de la colmena o una colonia demasiado débil para termorregularse.
- La humedad afecta a todo, desde el desarrollo de la cría hasta el curado del néctar y la propagación de patógenos como la cría yesificada y Nosema. Hacer su seguimiento te ayuda a entender los problemas de ventilación y de humedad estacional antes de que dañen a la colonia.
- Los niveles de CO₂ reflejan la actividad de la colonia, el tamaño de la población y la ventilación. Cambios bruscos pueden apuntar a sobrepoblación, entradas bloqueadas o cambios en el comportamiento de la colonia, y las tendencias a largo plazo te dan una ventana al vigor de la colonia a lo largo de las estaciones.
- El seguimiento de la ubicación importa porque el robo de colmenas es un problema real y creciente, especialmente para explotaciones comerciales y colonias raras o productivas. Saber dónde está tu colmena, y recibir un aviso si se mueve, protege tanto tu inversión como a tus abejas.
Más allá de las colmenas individuales, cada colonia monitorizada aporta a un panorama más amplio. Los datos a largo plazo ayudan a apicultores, investigadores y a la comunidad en general a entender cómo responden las abejas al clima, los pesticidas, la disponibilidad de forraje y las enfermedades. Son preguntas que importan mucho más allá de un solo apiario.
Aliméntalo como quieras
Tanto si tus colmenas están en un campo remoto como junto a un taller o tu casa, HiveLink se adapta a tu instalación:
- Solar con batería, para apiarios sin acceso a la red eléctrica
- Alimentación directa por USB-C, conéctalo donde tengas un enchufe
- Pack de baterías, estamos diseñando un pack de baterías personalizado, con el objetivo de alcanzar un año entero de autonomía con una sola carga
Envía los datos como quieras
Aquí es donde HiveLink realmente destaca. Cada modo tiene sus propias ventajas. Elige el que mejor se adapte a tu forma de trabajar, o combínalos entre distintas colmenas.
1. Modo local El dispositivo crea su propia red Wi-Fi. Conéctate directamente con tu móvil o portátil cuando estés en la colmena para ver datos en directo e históricos, sin necesidad de internet, SIM ni nube. Necesitas estar dentro del alcance Wi-Fi del dispositivo para acceder, así que este modo encaja mejor con apiarios que visitas con regularidad que con monitorización a distancia.
- Totalmente sin conexión; nada sale del dispositivo
- Lecturas en directo y registro histórico en el propio dispositivo
- Funciona en cualquier parte del mundo, sin necesidad de cobertura
- Perfecto para apicultores preocupados por la privacidad
2. SIM + API personalizada Usa una SIM IoT económica para enviar paquetes de datos a la plataforma o software que prefieras, mediante una API totalmente documentada.
- Envía datos a tu propio servidor, panel o servicio de terceros
- Documentación completa de la API para que puedas construir lo que quieras encima
- Ideal para quienes se autoalojan, desarrolladores e investigadores con sus propios pipelines
- Compatible con herramientas como InfluxDB, Grafana, brokers MQTT y más
3. SIM directo a Evocultiva.org Envía tus datos directamente a nuestra plataforma para verlos, almacenarlos y analizarlos.
- Notificaciones push directas a tu móvil para alertas de enjambrazón, caídas de temperatura, avisos de robo y más
- Panel web claro con gráficos históricos y comparación entre colmenas
- Gestión multi-colmena y multi-apiario desde una sola cuenta
- Umbrales de alerta configurables para que solo te enteres de lo que importa
- Tus datos contribuyen (de forma anónima) a la investigación apícola de código abierto, y nunca los venderemos
4. Integración con Home Assistant Se conecta mediante ESPHome, así que HiveLink encaja directamente en tu instalación domótica.
- Entidades de sensor nativas para sonido, CO₂, humedad y temperatura
- Crea automatizaciones: lanza notificaciones, registra en tu propia base de datos, enciende una luz cuando algo no va bien
- Combina los datos de la colmena con el clima, cámaras u otros sensores en un mismo panel
- Totalmente local, sin dependencia de la nube
Plug and play, o totalmente autoalojado
HiveLink está pensado para los dos extremos. Si solo quieres que funcione, conéctalo, apúntalo a Evocultiva.org y lo tendrás operativo en minutos. Si te preocupa la privacidad de los datos y quieres tener el control total, puedes ejecutar todo localmente o autoalojar el backend en tu propia infraestructura, de forma que tus datos nunca salgan de tu red. La elección es tuya, y cambiar entre modos no requiere hardware nuevo.
Código abierto, por diseño
Los esquemas, los archivos de PCB y el firmware están todos disponibles públicamente. Constrúyelo tú mismo, contribuye con mejoras, o haz un fork para tu propio proyecto. HiveLink existe porque la apicultura merece herramientas que los apicultores realmente posean.
