# Type of journal, inspection records



## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

I use a red crayon on the inner cover to say where the colony or queen came from and organic random access memory that becomes more random as I age. I only have thirty hives, and I know the history of the ones that matter. Although, as I'm told, it won't matter because they'll all be dead shortly because I'm treatment free.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

My tf queens come and go really fast so no need to keep track of them through the
selection process. The breeders though I will keep them in a specific location to trace their lineage.


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## Redhawk (Jun 7, 2016)

David, I know all to well about random access memory. Seems to only let me in on random occasions. 
So, Bee, you only track your queens & I guess that keeps it simple. Don't you look at hive strength even if the queen is nothing more than pheromones for a swarm trap? I see you've been doing this for a while, but in the beginning did you keep any records just help get around that learning curve?


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

The process started by keeping well fed and strong scent queens.
After a few rounds of laying you get a sense of the hive strength. By taking
a few pics of the newly mated queen you can go back to reference it if needed to later on.
And since I raised queens the hive dynamic will change fast. There is no way to keep
track of them all unless you really have a small apiary. I got through the learning curve on my
third years after killing so many bees and queens here. If it wasn't for grafting my queens I'm out
of this hobby a long time ago. A newly mated after the solstice queen will keep my apiary going until
next Spring time to get this process going again. So no need to keep much record but just by outside
hive observation and the occasional hive inspection will do. Hope you will get to this level someday!


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Hi red,
I´m doing it like this:


> Volk? The hive or colony
> 
> Datum: current date
> Standort,Abstand: location, distance to other hives
> ...


When I´m at the bee yard I use a laminated sheet of paper ( because of wind blowing it away, and propolis) to write upon. At home I transfer this into my records. 
The lids of my hives are marked, so exchange of boxes is possible.
I´m always taking my camera, too, do pictures of combs and scan at PC. I want to learn everything about bees.


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

I simply use Excel; one worksheet for the day to day, one for linage, one for swarms, one for the raw financial stuff, one for mead recipes, one for produced meads, etc, etc. Add, subtract columns; sort, filter entries/fields; etc as needed/appropiate. Pen and paper notes in the out yards and transfer to computer later; not every item has to be noted every time, mainly date time temp and whatever is significant that day/visit. My day to day worksheet consists of:

Date, Time, Temp, Weather, Yard/Hive, # Boxes, Diseases/ Pests, Feeding/ Pollen	,Temperament, Cells/Pattern, Bees Seen Working/In Bloom,	General Notes (urn the column heading 90 deg and wrap text to reduce column width)


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

there are a number of good methods for keeping track of your colonies redhawk. i didn't really start keeping records until i increased to over a handful of of hives and wasn't able to keep track in my head anymore.

what i do these days is to take an inexpensive digital voice recorder out to the yard with me and dictate into it after i close up each hive. then i bring that in and record the observations in a journal that i am keeping on the laptop.

i record different things as the seasons progress. at this point in the year it's too hot and i don't have time to go completely through each hive on a regular basis. i will do a thorough inspection if things don't look right for some reason, but i'm mostly paying attention to what is going on in the honey supers and make a note of what progress or lack thereof i see.

when we get to about our first frost i've finished with the honey harvest i'll equalize stores between the haves and the have nots. i'll then weigh the hives and record those weights. i've been rechecking those weights about once a month or so during the winter, but after a few years of doing that i'm not sure it's really necessary.

throughout the winter i'll go around with my stethoscope and listen for the roaring of the cluster. if i notice one getting less robust i'll pay particular attention to it. if i have one go completely quiet that usually means it has died out and i'll bring in the equipment and put it in the freezer to be repurposed as needed.

coming out of winter i'll note how many frames of bees i see and note the progress on the build up. i pay attention to how high up in the stack the broodnest has expanded into the checkerboarded supers, and if i see the stopping of upward expansion i'll manipulate frames to encourage further expansion.

later in the spring i'll watch for new white wax and the filling of the supers. and then start tracking the harvesting of honey and make sure there is always some extra room in the hives for incoming nectar.

at any time throughout the year i notice anything suspicious at the entrance, i.e. attempted robbing or the lack of pollen coming into a hive when there is a lot going into the others in the yard, i'll inspect to ensure the colony is queenright ect.

here is and example of my journal notes on a hive going back to last fall:

HIVE #1

_2015 GRAFT MATED HERE FROM 2014 GRAFT FROM A.J.’S 18 YEAR OLD COLONY MATED HERE_ 

082616: ADDED SUPER5 EXTRACTED COMB, SUPER4 APPEARS FULL AND STARTING TO GET CAPPED
072316: APPEARED TO HAVE GONE ON A ROBBING SPREE TO THE SOUTHEAST
071516: HARVESTED SUPERS 3&4, NOW SUPER3 FEELS FULL AND APPEARS MOSTLY CAPPED, SUPER2 APPEARS CAPPED, ADDED SUPER4 EXTRACTED COMB
060816: SUPER5 FULL AND STARTING TO GET CAPPED
052916: ADDED SUPER5 EXTRACTED COMB
051316: HARVESTED 1 SUPER OF HONEY
051016: NOT DOING MUCH WITH FOUNDATION SUPER SO MADE IT SUPER3, SUPER5 CAPPED AND READY FOR HARVEST, SUPER4 ALMOST CAPPED, 2 FRAMES OF BROOD AND A COUPLE OF QUEEN CELLS SEEN IN SUPER2
050316: SUPER5 UNCHANGED
043016: LOTS OF BEES IN SUPER5, SPACED OUT TO 9 FRAMES, GAVE BAIT COMB TO #6
042216: SUPER4 FULL OF BEES, ADDED SUPER5 FOUNDATION
041916: SUPER4 HALF FULL OF BEES
041616: WHITE WAX AT TOP OF SUPER3, NOT USING SUPER4, REMOVED FOUNDATION SUPER, SUPER4 NOW EMPTY SUPER FROM #10
040316: NOT USING SUPER4 YET, CLEAR BAND FILLED WITH BROOD, 6 FRAMES OF BROOD IN SUPER3, OPENED UP LEFT SIDE ONLY
032616: SUPER3 2/3 FULL OF BEES, GAVE SUPER4 FOUNDATION
031816: YOUNG BROOD IN MIDDLE 3 FRAMES OF SUPER3, OPENED UP SIDES WITH EMPTY COMB, WILL NEED FOUNDATION SUPER SOON
030516: EGGS IN MIDDLE FRAME OF SUPER3, BROUGHT CB’ED SUPER1 UP TO THE TOP, MIDDLE FRAMES IN DEEP NOW EMPTY COMB FLANKED WITH FRAMES HAVING LAST YEAR’S HONEY AT THE TOP, KILLED HALF DOZEN SHB UNDER INNER COVER, SCRAPED BOTTOM BOARD
022016: GAVE CB’ED SUPER3 FROM #4, ALMOST 3 DEEP FRAMES OF BEES
021916: QUEEN AND CAPPED BROOD ON MIDDLE FRAME OF SUPER2, NEEDS CB’ED SUPER3, ABOUT 5 MEDIUM FRAMES OF BEES
020616: 72 LBS
112115: 74 LBS
101715: 78 LBS, NEEDS 2 FRAMES HONEY


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## lharder (Mar 21, 2015)

A good question. Perhaps record keepers fall in 2 categories, minimalists and excessive and probably everything in between. I tend to fall in the first category. I add record keeping as I find it useful. But I need to have a good reason for keeping a data set, because my time is limited. The question is how to make the best use of my time, the limiting factor in my beekeeping. 

So I haven't kept too many records as I began. My goal was to increase the number of hives from which to make selection. The decisions were quite easy. I made increase from the strongest hives the first summer, then a mixture of 2nd year survivors and promising 1st year hives (overwintered nucs) the second. I have data from my involvement in the research group that identified some good hygienic behaviour, and decent mite counts, but this corresponded quite well with colony vigor. I would have made the same approximate decisions regardless of this data. 

Going forward, I am thinking of population level data. Some sampling of hives but not every hive. This to document the progress or lack of progress of the apiary.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

1. A nice soft #2 pencil and flat white paint on the top cover. Write your note with the pencil. Paint over the marks when they get too crowded.

2. Use the "international brick code" -- place a brick on the top cover. 

*The international brick code:*
Brick straight ahead -- hive thrifty
Brick at 90 degrees -- hive needs attention, but healthy (supers required)
Brick on edge -- hive has a time sensitive condition (queenlessness, queen cage or cell hatching, treatment strip, etc).

Being able to look down a row of hives and go directly to the ones that need assistance is a huge - huge time saver.
Being able to super up without having to reopen every friggin' hive means you don't lose hives to swarms.
Knowing which boxes have queens behind cork stoppers, by simply looking at the brick position, saves queens from being caught in cages.

3. A slim moleskin notebook in the console of the pickup truck.


I guarantee of these three methods I employ, "the international brick code" improve hive condition more than any other thing. 

Notes are fine, but it is actual actions on the hive that count. The brick marking means the actions are taken.

The pencil marking on the hive cover are useful for queen cell emergence and transfer notes -- I record the expected emergence date for cells (calculated on my fingers). I used permanent sharpie markers, but have found a soft "lumber" pencil is more satisfactory and less likely to dry out. I keep some colored lumber crayons around too -- and use these to mark hives that are ready for sale.

The moleskin notebook is used for after-the-fact calculation of management impacts (TF hives die more often than treated ones, produce less honey, acquire secondary diseases more frequently). I very seldom consult it on the fly, and I guessing anyone with a laptop spreadsheet uses those even less often.


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## Redhawk (Jun 7, 2016)

Thanks for all the info. Sounds like it's a full spectrum of options, which I had expected. Having only 2 hives this year it's been easy to record everything as a word doc, but I know next year I will be working at least 6 colonies & that's not going to be sufficient. Don't mean to sound morbid, but I want to have the best records I can so when I cross Oder, my wife won't have any difficulty in finding the colonies a good home. For me, it's always been about what I'm leaving for the next generation. Since I can't sit at the oc for long at all & my laptop has taken up permanent residence in my wood shop for Cadd design, I'm left with my iPad. But thankfully I now have Office Suite on the iPad so I can record on here, transfer to pc & thumb drive. I like a spread sheet idea so whoever wants to take them over will easily be able to read the history. And Siwolke, I take pics, too, but I am starting to set up my Nikon DSL camera to record any hive I think I have issues with. Sounds like a lotta work, but it's just like in the wood shop. More time is spent in set up than doing the cuts. But that setup time saves lotsa time in the long run. Preshe8 the insight, folks. :thumbsup:


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## Redhawk (Jun 7, 2016)

Didn't see yours, larder & JW, until after my post. I like the brick thing. And, Sp, I forgot to mention I have a stethoscope, too. Every handy.


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

Good info. I fall into the minimalist approach that lharder describes, and keep a pen and paper journal. I try to mainly take and keep notes on queen origin, age of queen, queen performance, colony condition at time of inspection. I am not as thorough as I should be, and have found myself frustrated two weeks later trying to recount which hives might need more attention than others, so taking notes, or visual reminders like the brick system definitely are good beekeeping practices. I might try something like the brick system for those times I don't utilize the journal entries, as sometimes I just forget or am in a hurry to get to something else.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

I have three excellent partners in the bee business, my friend and our two wives. This is none of our day jobs or frankly, priority in life. We do a lot of cutouts and swarm calls, trap swarms, and sell bees and honey. We have YouTube and Facebook records, emails and voice messages from customers and detailed financial records. But invariably, the best records for husbandry and day to day details are our text messages which often include pictures, notes, and comments concerning hive inspections and cutouts, customer contact information, and occasional snarky comments. On a side note, having an honorable, dependable, and otherwise reasonably flawed partner in the bee business is an essential part of enjoying this beekeeping Enterprise. Live well and prosper.


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## Redhawk (Jun 7, 2016)

Nordak said:


> I might try something like the brick system for those times I don't utilize the journal entries, as sometimes I just forget or am in a hurry to get to something else.


Me, too, Nordak, cause I'm really tired of beating my head against the wall. One swift blow with a brick should do it for me :lpf:


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

And an added bonus, if done correctly, it will only hurt once.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Tried book keeping and am just horrible at it. The dynamic nature of an apiary don't help. It was ok but not really handy on the fly with gloves on. Started asking around and found that I'm not the only one. The people like me (poor record keepers) said that they use blue masking tape on hives and write on it with a sharpie. 
I write what day I inspected, queen right or not, if she's marked, what color dot, needs a frame of brood, add space, harvest honey in top box, or whatever I have planned next. It helps.


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

Redhawk said:


> Me, too, Nordak, cause I'm really tired of beating my head against the wall. One swift blow with a brick should do it for me


I laughed when I read this to myself, and I laughed again out loud when I read it to my wife.


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

Riverderwent said:


> I laughed when I read this to myself, and I laughed again out loud when I read it to my wife.


Give yourself some credit, that Enterprise reference was pretty great. We should all take a lesson from Kirk. I might even re-label my journal to read "Captain's Log."


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## Redhawk (Jun 7, 2016)

I have to agree with Nordak, David. "I think it's dead, Jim." Will be the first thing I think of when I find my first colony collapse. But I do appreciate all the info on how everyone handles keeping track of their colonies. I only wish I could keep it all in my head. I'm kinda like Squarepeg, I can handle it now, but as the number of colonies increase I see it really getting out of control for me personally. And I'd much rather have a record system I'm comfortable with before I have more colonies than fingers & more apiaries than ears. Very helpful, folks. Megwich (thank you)


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

Redhawk said:


> I have to agree with Nordak, David. "I think it's dead, Jim." Will be the first thing I think of when I find my first colony collapse. But I do appreciate all the info on how everyone handles keeping track of their colonies. I only wish I could keep it all in my head. I'm kinda like Squarepeg, I can handle it now, but as the number of colonies increase I see it really getting out of control for me personally. And I'd much rather have a record system I'm comfortable with before I have more colonies than fingers & more apiaries than ears. Very helpful, folks. Megwich (thank you)


Don't let the doomsday squad ruin your experience, it's not as bad as the naysayers make it out to be. I have found it to be quite the opposite, and hope your experiences are as good or better. 

Thanks for the laughs.


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## J.Lee (Jan 19, 2014)

Riverderwent said:


> I use a red crayon on the inner cover to say where the colony or queen came from and organic random access memory that becomes more random as I age. I only have thirty hives, and I know the history of the ones that matter. Although, as I'm told, it won't matter because they'll all be dead shortly because I'm treatment free.


LOL Thanks for the laugh Riverderwent. I needed one today. I am treatment free as well. As for the journal, I am old school and use pen and paper (loose leaf) in a binder.


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