>Actually, most beekeepers I have known use lumber crayons to mark hives.

I use metal tree tags that are nailed to the brood boxes - very permanent.  Colonies on double brood (not many) are recorded in the format xxxx/xxxx; if a brood box is 'parked' over a colony (i.e. the queen does not have access to it) then the format is xxxx+xxxx.  All queens are allocated a number when clipped and marked (as soon as we see good brood).

The system enables me to know exactly where every queen is located - and it does not matter if roofs get moved around.

Records are kept on two Excel spreadsheets.   One holds day-to-day records with a sheet for each apiary.  The sheet is printed and taken with us on a clipboard.  This saves a great deal of time and effort in the apiary as we do not have to re-evaluate each colony and frequently do not need to inspect many of them.  Notes are added in the apiary, then updated on the spreadsheet and a new sheet printed when we come home.  (I save A4 paper that has only been printed on one side and use this for printing the working sheets).

The other spreadsheet is a Stud Book with a sheet per queen and holds all data relevant to that queen's performance, temper of the colony she has produced, any disease seen etc.

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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