In message <008401c4bffc$58c473b0$b33a74d5@DellDesk>, Robin Dartington
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Does Bob make HIVE NOTES on site and then make up TASK LISTS at home later?
>Or is there a trick? (Like throwing coloured marbles in a bucket to count
>extra supers needed, and just weighing the bucket later). Or perhaps every
>apiary is treated as just one unit, with all hives being given the same
>average treatment?

The problem with any system of notes is that you are looking for
something that is a tool to help you with your work, but often ends up
becoming the master instead of the slave. The first time you end up not
getting everything done because you needed to keep up the notes the
system has fallen down.

If you have to note colonies needing supers then you did not bring
enough with you in the first place (seems a crass point, but we see
small scale guys having to do this all the time) and so your aim every
morning is to have everything you MIGHT need with you before the days
run starts. Notes are rudimentary and consist of little more than number
of colonies, location, last date of working, and some simple items about
what happened last visit. One the hives themselves it is recorded about
swarm control, queen status (usually a mark of the colour of marking
which tells age, and then a mark such as VQ as requeening/splitting
proceeds) and dates of critical manoeuvres ( S 6/6 means split 6th June
when written on the parent hive, and 6/6 S means a split made on the 6th
June and is written on the new colony. Doesn't need to get any more
complicated than that.)

Like Bob we use marker pens, in a rotating cycle of colours over a four
year period, so any marks not in the current years colour are not valid.
After four years all the old marks have faded away, and only in the case
of black ones do you get them hanging around for more than a season. We
also have a 'position of the current year' where queen colour is
recorded (ie bottom centre, or top right) so no-one has to look around
for where the valid queen age mark is to be found, and ALL colonies are
marked in the same place that season.

Special queen strains are also recorded on the box, but that is usually
abbreviated down to a prominent single or double letter code and nothing
else so I know what it means but casual visitors will not know the
significance of a K or an S or an F or and SG, or whatever.

These marks are made as part of working the colony before you open the
next one, take just a couple of seconds, and you are done. Tool, not
master.

I think much record keeping is done (particularly at the amateur scale)
for record keepings sake, and is of little practical value. What you
REALLY need to know is remarkably brief, and can be accommodated in a
very rudimentary system.
--
Murray McGregor

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