Hive notes

[Johnsewell]

My notes for my first 2 years beekeeping are a mess. An interesting mess, with lots of info, but...Any ideas of minimum notes for medium sized enterprise? I'll want to track and breed from my stocks, and will be mobile with some apiaries. I have a Psion workabout handheld PC, which has a spreadsheet I hope to use. I thought I'd group my colonies into apiary files, and then a file per colony. What have you all found works, on paper or screen?

Thanks in advance
John.

[Johnsewell]

Mmmm,
This is a bit worrying. How many people are checking this to find a good way to keep records. 'cos theirs are just like mine now? Cards on the table guys! Is it rubbish? Have y'all been keeping bees for ages with only general notes?
John.

[Dee A. Lusby]

Mmnnnnnnn, how about no notes John?

What does it mean? Notes?

Dee

[Robert Brenchley]

My kids 'disappeared' my beekeeping notebook while tidying up. Doubtless it will reappear eventually. Meanwhile I still have notes in sheet form (I do both). this is based on Ted Hooper's system described in 'Guide to Bees and Honey. A version of it can be found at the Galtee Bee Breeding Group site (http://homepage.tinet.ie/~eduard/ This is a nice simple system, requiring little more than ticking off columns, and enables you to keep a record of everything important.

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com

[Johnsewell]

What does it mean? Notes?

Dee[/B][/QUOTE]

Scale...I think, often wondered what you did with hundreds of colonies, suspected what you're saying. Which is good if you're experienced and confident and have a good memory...all of which I'm working on :)
John

[Johnsewell]

Meanwhile I still have notes in sheet form (I do both). this is based on Ted Hooper's system described in 'Guide to Bees and Honey. A version of it can be found at the Galtee Bee Breeding Group site (http://homepage.tinet.ie/~eduard/ This is a nice simple system, requiring little more than ticking off columns, and enables you to keep a record of everything important
Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com[/B][/QUOTE

Thanks Robert, I've looked at that, and included quite a lot of it in my fledgling spreadsheet system. I am working on my memory, but won't turn down electronic help!

Aren't our children gifts? :)
John



[This message has been edited by Johnsewell (edited January 12, 2001).]

[Dee A. Lusby]

I see now John, you mean keeping track of where we are at with our bees.

No, we don't keep track by individual colonies. Too cumbersome.

But I do keep what I call a tally sheet by yard, by month, with space for side notes as to what is happening in general and what we are doing in general i.e. taking honey,dividing, flow coming on, vandals,working up, bedding down, etc.

Not much more, consider it unnecessary. Won't remember specifics years later anyway, just the general flow of the year.

Chow:

Dee

[Robert Brenchley]

BIBBA have a colony assessment sheet online at http://www.angus.co.uk./bibba/files/assess2.xls

It's intended for breeders, but looks as though it could be useful to anyone with an interest in assessing their colonies.

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com

[BeeCharmer]

John,

I use a handheld Jornada running a PockePC platform for recording data on my hives. The program I use is HandDBase by DDH software. www.ddhsoftware.com. (http://www.ddhsoftware.com.) It's a great program and allows pulldown menus for entering data with just a tap of the pencil. There is a palm os version too and it comes bundled with desktop version for about $25.

Having the data accessible in a database is MUCH easier than paging through my notebooks. It's easy to find info using the Sort and Filter functions.


------------------
Chris Sauer
Colesburg Apiaries
www.greathoney.com

[lostcowboy]

Hi all, BIBBA has a new web site. You can find there web site here. http://www.bibba.com/bibba_downloads.html

[denise_ky]

For those of you that don't have a palm pilot but would like to organize their notes I saw something on e-bay once geared specifically for beekeepers. some type of little notebook. I haven't gone back to look for it(been too busy organizing my notes) but you may be able to find it doing a search under beekeeper.
Denise

[dickm]

I bought a pocket recorder from Radio Shack that has the capability of downloading into the computer. The notes are stored as wave files but i can play them and organize at my leisure. It can be voice activated when I figure it out. THIS YEAR I'm going to velcro it to my pocket. I don't think it will bounce too many more times.

Dickm