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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: Celeste Mayer <cmmayer AT mindspring.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Record keeping suggestions please
  • Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:39:28 -0500

Celeste,
I struggled with record keeping ideas, too, when I first started beekeeping. I finally settled on a system that works for me. It is too cumbersome for most beekeepers, but it will give you an idea. I hope other listserv readers will share their systems, too. I have also used HiveTracks which is an online system requiring a monthly subscription. I liked it, but I find it less useful for a big picture review of what is going on in a colony. I think you can still get a trial subscription to see if that is an acceptable option for you.

When I do a full hive inspection, I use a recording app on my iPod. I essentially talk to myself as I go through the hive calling out what I am seeing and where. This helps me with details later when I compile my inspection notes using a word processing package. I like the word processor because it saves time in terms of cut and paste options, I can highlight important events and I can add pictures. I create a journal entry for every hive related activity, feeding, simple observations, etc. I only use the recorder for full inspections.

I’ve attached a sampling of my inspection notes to give you an idea of what I track. Before I go into a hive I think about why I’m going in - what purpose is being served. In my early beekeeping days i would find that when I was done with my inspection, I still had unanswered questions because I hadn’t completely thought through what I was planning to accomplish.

I record time and weather info because it often has an impact on bee behavior. I can sometimes relate the number of stings received to the weather conditions at the time of inspection.

The references to Q1, Q2 etc. are based on a presentation at the NCSBA Conference by Jennifer Berry. Jennifer is an entomologist and apicultural researcher at University of Georgia. She explained her criteria for evaluating queens based on colony defensiveness at the 2015 Spring Conference of the North Carolina State Beekeeping Association in Monroe, NC.

Queen 1 (Q1)
When you lift the inner cover, the bees totally ignore you.

Queen 2 (Q2)
When you lift the inner cover, the bees look up and then go about their business. A couple of bees may actually take to the air, but quickly settle back down.

Queen 3 (Q3)
The bees fly around the apiary while you are working the hive.

Queen 4 (Q4)
The bees repeatedly bump you while you are working the hive.

Queen 5 (Q5)
The bees chase you out of the apiary.

Jennifer breeds queens and always has a ready supply of replacements. She replaces the queen if the defensive behavior of the colony is 3 or more. I requeen at Q4. As Randall says, Life is too short to work with mean bees.”

As a self-training tool I read through my notes in the winter. I found early on that some of the things that baffled me during the beekeeping season were quite understandable when reviewed in context. This was especially true for a queen event in my first year. I had recorded a series of notes that would have led an experienced beekeeper to realize that the colony was queenless. But as a newbie I rarely saw the queen even when she was alive and well. I could only see the big queenless picture after counting days and reviewing my observations from one inspection to the next. 

Attachment: Bee Notes.docx
Description: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document


John Rintoul
(919) 414-4071 (M)

No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.




On Jan 2, 2017, at 12:26 PM, Celeste Mayer <cmmayer AT mindspring.com> wrote:


Hi Everyone, Happy New Year!  I’d love to hear suggestions for record keeping.  I’m reviewing my handwritten notes (that I can read) kept in a monthly calendar note book.  This worked okay during the season for keeping track of in the month or couple of months  activity but not very useful for looking back over the year and long term review.  If you have a system, paper, electronic or purchased software that you really like can you share those ideas?  Thanks so much , Celeste
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