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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #153  by DianeBees
 29 Jul 2018, 10:40
Why do we need to keep records?

We need to know when we're next due to inspect a colony. There are the Ted Hooper five questions which should be asked of every inspection.
R - Room: Does the queen have enough room to lay? Do the workers have enough room to store nectar and pollen?
E - Eggs: Is the queen present and laying? Are there eggs and/or have you seen the queen?
D - Development: Is the colony building up as expected? Are there queen cells?
D - Disease: Are the bees healthy? Do they have noticeable mite loads? Any sign of foul brood, chalk brood, DWV, etc.?
S - Stores: Does the colony have enough stores until the next inspection?
It can be used to remind us what equipment to take to the apiary - for instance extra supers or clearer boards or a smaller entrance block.
Even if you have a great memory it's always good to have a written record. It isn't too hard when you only have one hive but when you have a few it can easily just blur into a mystery as to what was in which hive.
In case of illness or holiday - someone else will be able to inspect your bees.



The BBKA hive record sheet
https://www.bbka.org.uk/bbka-hive-keeping-record-system

Imagehiverecord-screengrab by Diane drinkwater, on Flickr


Which hive record sheet do you use?
 #158  by DianeBees
 29 Jul 2018, 10:54
Ted Hooper's five questions
R - Room: Does the queen have enough room to lay? Do the workers have enough room to store nectar and pollen?
E - Eggs: Is the queen present and laying? Are there eggs and/or have you seen the queen?
D - Development: Is the colony building up as expected? Are there queen cells?
D - Disease: Are the bees healthy? Do they have noticeable mite loads? Any sign of foul brood, chalk brood, DWV, etc.?
S - Stores: Does the colony have enough stores until the next inspection?

Can be included on a record sheet!
http://beespoke.info/2015/02/18/hoopers-five-questions/

Louth Beekeepers also have this one
http://www.louthbeekeeping.com/keeping- ... cords.html
 #343  by nealh
 19 Aug 2018, 09:50
I keep a simple record on hive and at home and a rigid 7 day inspection.
I simply record date, room,brood, Q seen,marked or clipped, QC's, brood as EUS and a remarks column.
All the other tosh written in my view is tosh.
Any thing like weather, varroa, disease, treatments, temperament or any thing else gets noted under remarks otherwise it KISS for me.
 #345  by AdamD
 19 Aug 2018, 10:14
I have a hive record card that I've used for quite a few years - and some of the columns are rarely filled in. I think that having certain categories is a good 'teaching aid' in order to get people thinking about what to look for but as you get more experienced you can omit stuff. And determining the ratio of brood to stores for each frame is not something I've ever done. If there's brood there's brood and it's counted is my method. I don't have time for weekly or even fortnighly inspections even with making short-cuts! A result of that is that yesterday I saw a couple of supercedure queens I didn't know I had as I had not gone through the BB in some colonies for a month or so.
 #346  by Sipa
 19 Aug 2018, 12:24
We publish a hive record sheet that is available to anyone who wants it.

Email [email protected] with ' inspection sheet ' (without the quote marks) in the subject line, you will recieve the inspection sheet by return.

There is also a screen shot on our facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/sipahoneybees/ ... 31/?type=3