Celeste,
Thanks for raising this question -- I loved John's response and
would like to hear from others too. This is a great topic because
there are no wrong answers and there are lots of opportunities for
us all to improve.
I have a great beekeeper friend who keeps notes by writing on the
outer cover of each hive with a Sharpie. That's it. But he gets
all of what he needs to know on there. I think that's an important
point -- what information do you really need in order to meet your
goals? Everybody's goals and needs are different.
I keep notes in a pocket-sized spiral notebook and transfer them
to a Word document whenever I return to the house. When I first
started keeping bees, I had two hives. I recorded the weather,
what was blooming, how much smoke I used, how many stings I got
from each hive, exactly how much sugar syrup I gave each one and
their progress consuming it, and on and on and on. My first year
notes cover 9 full pages for 2 hives. Now with ten to fifteen
hives, my notes are only a couple of pages per year. My notes no
longer mention most things that are normal and expected. My
concerns are longevity of queens (including swarming), honey
productivity and varroa mite counts. So typical entries during
most of the year will be something like:
Hive X: Saw queen, good shape.
Hive Y: DNCQ {did not see queen}, brood of all ages, great shape.
Hive Z: No brood, last saw queen May 5th, probably swarmed, check
for new queen on June 15th.
At harvest time (June), my notes record how much honey each
colony made, measured in full and partial supers. That lets me
know which queens to make more colonies from. I also make careful
note of Varroa levels and treatment applications to make sure I am
truly controlling them.
If there is a colony that is abnormal, such as overly defensive,
underweight compared to the others or has shockingly high hive
beetle counts, I make special note of that.
My note-keeping goal is to collect the information that allows
me: 1) to identify high-producing colonies with long-lived queens
(nonswarmy) to use as mother queens for increase; 2) to recognize
queen events (swarming, supersedure, etc.) in order to respond
correctly; 3) to control Varroa infestations effectively and
efficiently.
Looking back at my notes from the past dozen years, I can make
assessments related to these goals that would be impossible if I
simply relied on my aging memory. For example, when I have a
colony that is limping into fall, I can refer to my notes to see
if there is a reason. From where did this colony originate? Did
they cast a late spring swarm? Have they always been a "problem
child"? Did they look like this last year but rebounded strongly
in early spring? In other words, should I invest in them or
combine them? It really doesn't require a lot of data points to
make that kind of assessment -- just the key ones.
My oldest daughter was looking over my shoulder once as I was
entering my notes on my laptop.
She asked, "What's that?"
I said, "This is my beekeeping journal."
She replied, "It's
really boring!"
"Well," I said, "it's not for you."
So there.
:-)Randall
On 1/2/2017 12:26 PM, Celeste Mayer
wrote:
47510352-544F-40EF-A5D3-94E36E57B842 AT mindspring.com" type="cite" class="">
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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