Does anyone have a good downloadable form to write down their inspections? I’m conscious that i will definitely need to keep notes as i am learning, and wanted to see if anyone had any good tried and tested paperwork!
I think Thornes sell something?
I do all my bee bookeeping on a spreadsheet
Ask your local club
I use the Beetight website and app.
Free version allows up to 6 hives or for $15 US a year you can have up to 1000.
It allows a bit of freedom in setting up the inspection checklist which you can print out if you need to.
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Hi Sally,
I like Valli I love Excel and track all my hives, queens, apiaries, honey, contacts, etc in excel… its a one stop shop. Not too good outdoors in the sun on the laptop, then add in gloves, veil, smoke and bees, so I came up with the attached bee inspection sheets that you print up and using a pencil or highlighter pen make notes as you go. Later they can be updated into excel. There are lots of apps and software around, just a matter of what suits you and how computer literate you are. Feel free to modify as you wish or else just use a good old fashioned notepad, works equally as well. If you like what you see, send me a message with your email and I will gladly send you the excel version of this as the site doesn’t allow anything except image files.
I must admit I remember the inspections but Usually film as well so I just update the spreadsheet when I have 5 mins
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Isn’t the world a lovely place? I love the way some folk are great with figures and just love to tabulate and record everything. All it does for me is recalls my maths lessons in school where the appearance of a Greek letter rendered the whole page invisible. Having to record statistics is bad enough but reading and manipulating them leaves me absolutely horrified. I really take my hat off to you all. I keep a record of brood amount and pattern. Stores. Q + or - I can’t process much more than that. I do keep a weather diary in a separate folder in my apiary computer notes and there is a list of when plants bloom year by year. I look forward to Dawn’s translation of her Arnia records, though.
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Having some teething problems with the Arnia at the moment. It just randomly stopped transmitting data. I have contacted support, but my e-mail is dodgy right now, and I haven’t heard back from them. I am going to try rebooting (have to undo a bunch of screws and remove/replace the batteries) and repositioning (or even replacing) the antenna on the gateway monitor. Just a matter of finding the time… 
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The main problems that I have read about is that you are asking sensitive electronic instruments to survive the hostile environment of a beehive. Heat, humidity and propolis. Fingers crossed.
I like Hive Tracks. Very cheap, and it works.
Problem I have is to take the sheets out with me when I do the inspection. Tends to be very windy where I am at. Can lose a sheet of paper pretty easily.
I only inspect one hive at a time, and I can usually remember what I found when I get home, as long as I fill in Hive Tracks right away. Sounds like you need a clipboard and a rubber band! Still not easy, though. 
I keep it all in my head. I know if there’s something wrong with a hive & needs some attention. Conversely, I know if a hive is getting too strong & needs weakening out. That’s basically all one needs to be concerned about. There’s not enough hours in the day to start writing every detail of every inspection down.
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For one or two hives I am OK, I can remember… but after that it all becomes hazy… Another alternative is to develop a beekeeper language on the inside lid of your hive, I have seen some beekeeper scribbles which is quite clever. The problem is, after you get home, how do you then remember? At least with the sheets, I can calculate which queens were performing well and which hives may need some extra TLC.
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I never try to remember, I must confess to never looking at a queens performance. I figure if the bees aren’t happy with her performance, they’ll supersede her. If a hive is down on numbers for no apparent reason, I’ll help it out with a few frames of sealed brood. With that increase in population, that increased critical mass will determine the fate of the queen. That probably explains why the odd hive goes queenless. A supersedure going wrong.
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I’ve heard of similar from an old beekeeper using rocks sitting on the lids of the hives in different placements/quantities to signify different states of the hive… not sure that it would work for me… but I do find it charming in its simplicity.
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Here’s my Hive notes design. You should be able to print it from my site: http://beekeepinglikeagirl.com/why-keep-hive-inspection-notes/
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I’m impressed thank you
I know that this is a very old post, but I really like your inspection sheet. Do you still use this sheet and would I be able to get it for excel?
