Bee Record Keeping

While record keeping, a bee keeper do what is relevant for him/her, but has to consider including the following:

1. A descriptive of apiary location:

• When was your apiary established?
• What is the orientation of your hives?
• Are they in the sun/shade?
• What type of environment are they in? (consider ~2miles around)
• Some people will even go to the point of printing local weather forecasts (yes, I know at least one; no, it’s not me).
• A summary of the “demographics” of your apiary: date and number of colonies and nucs alive on that day. Add a new entry for every change (buy new nucs, catch a swarm, make splits…).

2. A description per hive: (this can be the first page of your hive notebook)

• What type of material do you use? Is it the same for all your hives?
  Ex: plastic frames, wax foundation, 10 frames deeps…
• What race of bee?
• Queen info:
  • Age of queen: indicate if you know when she was born (at least year/month)
  • Is she marked? (color / number)
  • Where does she come from: did you buy her? From where? Was she inseminated? Did you raise her naturally (after split or swarm)?
  • Whenever you change queen, indicate when, how you did it and why you did it (ex: too aggressive, too old, accident or lost queen for unknown reason…).

3. Information from visits:

• Date
• Objective of the visit
  Ex: routine visit; adding suppers; replacing frames; sampling for varroa; feeding …
• Did you see: (you can use this as a checklist)
  • The queen (=QS: Queen Seen)
  • Eggs (=QR: Queen Right)
  • Larvae
  • Capped brood
    You might want to estimate the number of frames of capped brood; this will inform you on the amount of new workers to expect in the coming week or two). Also note if you notice an excessive amount of drone brood.
  • Pollen
  • Honey
    Again, you might want to estimate the number of frames of pollen and honey.
• You should also indicate if you notice any:
  • Varroa
  • Deformed wings
  • Wax moths
  • Any other pest or sign of disease.