Hive records for beekeepers

Hive records are an essential part of beekeeping, and a very useful tool for the beginner beekeeper. Good record keeping will aid you in understanding why certain things happen in a colony.

The first few years of beekeeping will present you with a lot of challenges and a very steep learning curve. Things will go wrong, they just will. You will have to deal with swarming, drone laying queens or workers, colonies that stand still when their neighbours thrive, queenlessness, angry bees. You name it. Being able to go back over your records to find a pattern or perhaps a single incident that led to the issue you are facing will help you prevent it from happening again. Or at least make you aware of the potential of such incidents occurring and what causes them to happen.

Different hive records for different needs

The type of records required for beginners are completely different from the records for an experienced hobby beekeeper or a commercial one. However, many of the hive records that are available to purchase, or download and print are, in my opinion, not very well suited to the needs of the beginner. They consist mainly of columns where you can record, using abbreviations and numbers, the status of your colony. They also usually have a very, very, tiny space for writing notes. These are more suited for those with a few years’ experience. And for beekeepers who are more confident in reading the bees, are comfortable in their own style of beekeeping and know what is important to keep track of and when, and what is not.

Hive records for beginners need only to record the essentials. However, they need to be designed so that the beginner can learn as much as possible from their inspections and handling. Furthermore, the records should provide an opportunity to easily record data in a way that allows the beekeeper to subsequently read patterns and draw conclusions. It also needs to contain ample space for taking notes.

Hooper’s five questions

A good hive record should be based on Hooper’s five questions. By asking those questions at each inspection, and writing down the answers in your hive records, you will ensure that you get a good picture of what is going on in the hive. You can also remedy any issues before they become a problem. The five questions refer to the following:

1. Room – Is there space in the Broodbox for the broodnest to expand? Or is the space taken up with honey or brood? Is there enough space to store honey if there is a flow on or anticipated before the next inspection? If the answer is no, then appropriate space needs to be provided. You can either add frames of drawn comb or foundation, or a super or second broodbox, if using.
2. Eggs – What you look for here is not just eggs, you’re also looking for your egglaying machine aka the Queen. What you need to ascertain is: Is the queen present, and is she laying? You should also look at if she is laying well in comparison with other colonies. And if the broodpattern is good.
3. Development – Is the colony building up or standing still? Are there queencells present or any other signs of swarming?
4. Disease – Are there signs of any disease? What is the Varroa level in the colony?
5. Stores – Does the colony have enough honey and pollen to last until at least the next inspection? If not, immediate feeding is necessary.

Failing to record

If you fail to ask all the five questions, you run the risk of missing some very important information. This could be detrimental so the survival and welfare of your bees. They could starve, become crippled or die from disease. Or they could swarm causing a nuisance to those around you, reduce your yield of honey and rob you of chances to make increases to your stocks. Keeping good records will help make sure that you check and record all vital information at every inspection.

Sample hive record for beginners

This is a sample of my record sheet. I started using it as a beginner and still use to this day, with a few amendments. All the basics are covered and can be easily ticked or numbered. You can also follow the development under each heading to see if there are patterns emerging. There is also a bigger than usual space given to notes.

Under observations I would record things that are happening in the hive. For example, the first sight of dronebrood, backfilling of honey in broodbox, number of queencells, if feed is being taken, mitecount etc.

Under actions taken I record things like feeding and amount of feed given orVarroa treatment. Also if I have broken down or removed queencells, adding a testframe, removing or adding bees or brood, adding frames with foundation or empty comb, removing dirty comb, removal of dronebrood as a part of Varroa management, making an artificial swarm or taking out a nuc etc.

Under action needed I will make notes if the bees need to be fed, given room, split, or treated. Also note any other action that needs to be performed during the next inspection. This is very helpful as I can then prepare for the next inspection and get all the equipment ready that I might need the next time.

And last, but not least, is the date for the next inspection. (I don’t know how I managed before I had included this one!)

Bring your hive records home!

Do not leave your hive records under the roof of your hive. Bring it into the bee-shed or house where you can go over them and answer any questions that you may have before the next inspection. You will also need to check it while getting your equipment ready for the following inspection. Number your hives so that you know which record belongs to each hive.

At the back of my folder where I keep my hive records, I keep a list that I add to throughout the years. Its heading reads: Lessons learned. Here I list both successes and failures so that I can learn from them as I develop my beekeeping skills.

Some useful tips

I don’t usually do it, but I know of many beekeepers who like to bring their phones with them while inspecting their hives. It does provide a wonderful opportunity to take pictures that you can later have a look at and enlarge if there are things that you would like to investigate further. However, bees are not overly enamoured with mobile phones so do switch it to airplane mode if at all possible.

Number your hives and hive records to make sure you don’t get them mixed up.

There are some very useful recording tools and beekeeping apps available for smartphones.

Bad records are better than no records. If all you can manage is to scribble a few words on the top of the roof, the back of a receipt or a cereal box, then do it. Our memories are seldom as good as we want them to be…

Download my sample hive record.pdf here.

Other simple, straight forward an useful Hive Inspection forms can be downloaded from Wimbledon Beekeepers and from High Weald Beekeepers Association

Thank You for reading and good luck in your beekeeping endeavours!

/Hanna

Extracts of this article was written for and first published in An Beachaire, The Irish Beekeeper, in 2019

For more beekeeping tutorials please visit my beekeeping blog.