# Beekeeping Software



## BuzzyBee (May 28, 2008)

Hey Gregg,

I hope you succeed in putting together your software. I try to set up a spreadsheet to do my logging, but a dedicated program would be a lot better I think.

It would be nice to integrate several aspects together. Some suggestions would be:

Hive inspection checklist and log
income and expenses
hive component inventory
outyard inventory
contact manager

Hope this helps and good luck :applause:

BB


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## dhood (May 26, 2008)

I would like to hear from everyone on what features they would like to see in such a program. 

Anything that will work with Vista


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## Jorn Johanesson (Mar 30, 2005)

*importance for a beekeeping software*

1. How to collect data in the apiary
2.how to enter it into the software at home (User interface)
3. How to get the data back from the software so that they can be used.

You are very welcome to stay on my shoulders and use my software as a template. My software will run on Vista 32bit too. I will not develop my software further, so just go on.

You can download my software and right click in the grid to activate more fields than those three I populate in the beginning.

You will also find a beekeeping accounting part, and if a queen breeder a queen timetable.

I think you will find the most people will ask for, and you are welcome to use it.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=226553


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## Big John (Feb 4, 2009)

need to make it very user friendly for dummies like me, it would be very helpful and save me a lot of time.


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## Gregg Ogden (Sep 12, 2005)

*General Ideas*

I think the starting page should have several tabs linking to yards, equipment inventory, finances, management, etc. Each section would have subsections such as, when entering the yard tab, it would give you information about your various yards, including equipment inventory for each yard, individual hive status, all manipulations done, status of queens, etc. The equipment tab would list overall inventory, numbers at each yard and so on. Under finances, you should be able to enter your own cost estimates of individual hive components and by clicking on a particular yard, it would give you an estimate of assets in that yard. 
All suggestions welcome. Thanks

All the best,
Gregg


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## Patrick Scannell (Jul 3, 2004)

What would be the purpose of the software you plan on writing? What would the beek get out that makes data-entry worthwhile?

I'd be interested in breeder queen rating software. A place to enter measured characteristics (production, health, gentleness, etc), the software would calculate Z-scores and output a ranked list.

Development in a cross-platform language like python, and an open (sourceforge-like) development environment would be nice.

Thanks.


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## HarovonMogel (Nov 13, 2007)

*Some suggestions*

There should be multiple ways to enter in data, including custom fields that you could define and graph automatically.
For example, several ways to gauge honey production would be good - not everyone will weigh the honey from each individual hive, but counting supers or frames or a combination of the two is often more feasible.

MyBeeHives.com has some queen info, and hives can be named/numbered, but the options are really slim and cannot accommodate the reality of beekeeping. For example, what if you make a hive split, and want to keep track of these down the road? You could include an option to split a hive, and define the hive that remains, along with the new hive split being a daughter of the first. (and the Queen reared from fresh eggs being a daughter of that split.

There is widespread interest with beekeepers, it seems, with testing out new hive designs and management strategies. Perhaps some details for assigning hive 'types' to the hives if we want to, or defining custom categories in that. If we can include some information such as the latitude/longitude, vegetation type, and climate type, perhaps beekeepers can send their data from this program to a researcher who could make something of it. I very much like the idea of being part of a giant nationwide experiment in beekeeping!

And definitely a way to keep track of the parasite load and feeding.

Thanks for doing this, feel free to send me a message if you've got someting to try out. (I hope it will be Windoze XP compatible)


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## Dr.Wax (Apr 30, 2008)

I think the feature I would use the most is a hive inspection checklist. I have one here someone printed out for me but most of the entries I find unusable for my small hobbyist situation.

So a customizable checklist would be nice. You could just put a check next to only the items you would like included on your checklist and then print that out. Each inspection sheet should have a small area for notes as well...i.e. what manipulations were done, what should be done at next inspection, etc.

I like the idea of being open source and I would certainly use the program if it meets my needs.


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## kc409 (Nov 17, 2009)

Here is a link to our free beekeeping software for anybody interested:

http://www.dataimagesoftware.net/bee.htm

This package was originally done for users in New Zealand and it is only available in English.


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## JonEdangerousli (May 8, 2007)

Looks like a good package!



> MS-Windows operating systems


Oops. Spoke too soon.


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## BoBn (Jul 7, 2008)

*Re: importance for a beekeeping software*



Jorn Johanesson said:


> You are very welcome to stay on my shoulders and use my software as a template. My software will run on Vista 32bit too. I will not develop my software further, so just go on.You can download my software and right click in the grid to activate more fields than those three I populate in the beginning.



That is very generous. 

The challenge (problem) is that there is a very limited market (the average *housewife* needs to be convinced that she desperately needs your product). If you want to expand your market. 

Otherwise, you have what is known as "A narrow vertical market". The translation for this is that you only have a limited customer base. 

Autodesk (AutoCad, LanDesktop, etc) for example, screws their customers with prices and mandatory updates that are alienating their customer base.

And there are even smaller markets that have the screws put to them and many of these commercial products basic software have been developed at the expense of taxpayers.

Sorry for the rant, but I hope that you are successful in providing a useful product without delusions of grandeur. Support for your product is as important as the product itself.

Don't forget Apple, Linux, BSD has at least 20-25% of computer users vs. Micro$oft. If you have a small market, you may need them all.


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

Yup. If it's only available for Windows, I will never be able to use any such software. Linux only in my house and on my computers.

Plus, if you go opensource, the chances of finding others to help improve on the software will increase.

Big Bear


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## JonEdangerousli (May 8, 2007)

We have an XP desktop and I can use XP on Parallels with my MacBook Air, but I only use that for MS Project usually. Other than those and my wife's Macbook Pro have a couple of CentOS servers here at the Copperhead Road Compound (CRC), so they're out as well.

I downloaded the trial and will give it a spin next time I start Parallels...


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## kc409 (Nov 17, 2009)

*Re: importance for a beekeeping software*

Sorry, but our beekeeping software is only available in English and only for the MS-Windows platform.


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

ok, no problem, Non windows users are used to being discriminated against.

Big Bear


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## BigDru (Aug 4, 2009)

I look forward to an easy to use hive management program. You'll never make everyone happy. I think being able to graph trends would be nice as well.


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## pukakoe (Jan 12, 2008)

I entered a location into the "Hive Colony Location" but it doesn't display. I entered it again and got error message about duplicate entry. I entered one more and it doesn't display either.

I am definitely not complaining and I really look forward to using the software next year. I am just wondering if you have any ideas?

Thanks, Geoff


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## mtbe (May 28, 2009)

Dr.Wax said:


> I think the feature I would use the most is a hive inspection checklist. I have one here someone printed out for me but most of the entries I find unusable for my small hobbyist situation.
> 
> So a customizable checklist would be nice. You could just put a check next to only the items you would like included on your checklist and then print that out. Each inspection sheet should have a small area for notes as well...i.e. what manipulations were done, what should be done at next inspection, etc.
> 
> I like the idea of being open source and I would certainly use the program if it meets my needs.


I like the idea of an inspection checklist. But one may need seasonal checklists as well. What is done in the Spring is different than Autumn.


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## USCBeeMan (Feb 7, 2009)

I too am going to write a beek's software applications. I have a strong background in application development and design. I have done some very complicated work for the IRS and Dept of the Army. The IRS work was reviewed by MIT and received great reviews. Since my hand surgery I have some time on my hands (no pun intended).

My design will include:

Inventory available and in use with location.

All apiaries locations and mileage to/from.

History of work completed - General: Date, Apiary, weather conditions, basic work completed.

History of work completed - Specific: Specific hives, work done, detail data of every box and frame viewed.

Hive history: Origin, date, location. Requeened, superceaded, swarmed, died out, split, Nuc, Package, Moved, treatments, honey taken, boxes reversed/added/removed

Purchases: Anything purchased for the business.

Cutouts/trapouts/Swarms

Mapquest direction links.

Since I am currently not into breeding queens, I have no idea what info needs to be captured.

I am currently keeping some of this data using spreadsheets. I probably keep too much i nfo, but that's my nature. Better to have the ability to capture the data than not. User can make decisions on just how much i fo they need.

Ca't type worth a darn with this split a d surgery........


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## USCBeeMan (Feb 7, 2009)

I am open to all suggestions. Just send me the i formation and pic of how it should look.


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

to appeal and be useful to the most people and be useful regardless of OS installed, you could do it as a web app. Take advantage of the "Cloud", everyone seems to be hopping on the bandwagon.

and, tell you what, if you ask where it would be hosted, I would offer the hosting space to users for free.

Big Bear


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## ickyfritz (Apr 8, 2009)

Just a novice here, but I think it would be great if you could include in the software when putting on honey supers would be prohibited due to medication. I don't know if you want to try to list all the medications yourself and the time required before putting on any supers or simply allow the individual beek to enter that information manually. Not all beeks use the same or any medications.


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## USCBeeMan (Feb 7, 2009)

Good ideas!! Could create a dataset for meds and work off of that.

Anything is possible. Even a report of when hives/apiaries need to be treated/stop treatment/repeat treatment.


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