Apiary Record Keeping

Apiary record keeping is the habit of regularly writing down each colony's inspection notes, queen details, varroa counts, medicine and treatment applications, feeding, harvest and hive movements. It is the cheapest practice in beekeeping and the one that pays back the most; a well-kept notebook gives information that no piece of equipment can. In Türkiye, recording the use of veterinary medicines and keeping prescriptions is also a legal requirement.

Why keep records in the apiary?

Many beekeepers think they can keep twenty colonies and a whole season in their head. In practice colonies get mixed up, dates slip, and a colony that looked good last year is remembered as better than it was. The main benefits of keeping records are:

• Comparison: Only with written data can you see which colony gave more honey and which one keeps swarming or falling ill.
• Timing: You know what to look for at the next inspection and when feeding or a treatment ended.
• Disease tracking: When a problem arises, if you know where a given frame, queen or colony came from, action can be limited to the hives concerned.
• Legal obligation: Veterinary medicine records, hive plates and colony movements are asked for in official inspections.
• Breeding: You choose the queens to breed from on the basis of performance over several years, not on gut feeling.

How should hives be numbered, and what should a hive card look like?

The first requirement of record keeping is that every colony has a single, unchanging identity. In Türkiye, each hive is given a yellow hive plate with an identification number through the Beekeeping Registration System (AKS). Using your own short number (e.g. 1, 2, 3 or A-12) alongside the plate makes work in the field easier.

• The number goes on the body, not the roof: Roofs and boxes are often swapped around during inspections. Write the number on the floor or on the front of the brood box with permanent paint or a branding iron.
• The number follows the colony: If the colony is transferred to another box, its number goes with it, and a note is made in the record book.
• Hive card: A card on the inside of the roof or in a waterproof pocket lets you see the latest status quickly while standing at the hive. The main record, however, should be kept in a notebook, on a computer or in an app; a card can get lost.

What goes into inspection notes?

A good inspection note does not have to be long; filling in the same headings every time is enough. That way notes can be compared with each other over the years.

• Date and hive number (the weather can be added as a brief note)
• Queen status: Was the queen seen; if not, are there fresh eggs?
• Brood: How many frames, is it regular, is there any sinking, perforation or discoloration in the capped brood?
• Stores: State of honey and pollen, roughly how many frames
• Swarm signs: Are there queen cells, how many and where?
• Health: Signs of disease or pests, dead bees in front of the hive
• Temper: Calm or aggressive, do they run on the comb?
• Action taken and next step: Box added, fed, "check queen cells in 7 days" and so on

Abbreviations save time in the field. What matters is that everyone uses the same abbreviations and that the key is written at the front of the notebook:

How should varroa counts be recorded?

A varroa record should contain at least three pieces of information: date, method and result. Results from different methods cannot be converted directly into one another; so write down which method you used every time.

• Alcohol or detergent wash / sugar roll: The number of mites dislodged from about 300 bees (about half a glass) and the rate per 100 bees.
• Natural mite drop (floor tray): How many days the tray was in and the total number of mites; the daily average for comparison.
• Before and after treatment: Two measurements made with the same method show whether the treatment worked. Resistance to a treatment can only be noticed through this comparison.

Medicine and treatment records: a legal requirement

Under Türkiye's Beekeeping Regulation, beekeepers must record the veterinary medicinal products they use and keep the prescriptions, and present them to the Ministry on inspection. This record is also the most important document showing that your honey is residue-free. For each application, write down:

1. Date of application (start and finish; for strips or long-acting products, the date of removal)
2. Numbers of the hives treated
3. Product name, active ingredient and batch/lot number
4. Method of application and amount (in line with the label and prescription)
5. The veterinarian who wrote the prescription and the date of the prescription
6. Super status and withdrawal period: Were supers on the hive during treatment, and when is harvesting allowed?
7. Outcome: Post-treatment mite count or observation

Colony movement, feeding and harvest records

What happens to a colony over the year explains why its yield was good or bad.

• Movement records: Where the colony was obtained from, which apiary or siting point it was taken to, whom it was sold to; transport and siting certificates are part of this record. In Türkiye, beekeepers are also obliged to notify the provincial/district directorate of hives coming in and going out and of colony movements.
• Comb and frame transfers: Which brood or honey frames were given from which hive to which. If brood disease breaks out, without this record the whole apiary becomes suspect.
• Feeding: Date, type of feed (syrup, fondant) and amount.
• Harvest: Number of supers or kilograms taken per colony; which source it came from.
• Losses: Colonies that died, became queenless or were united, and the likely cause.

Queen records and the colour code

The queen determines a colony's character; that is why every queen should have her own record: year of birth, source (reared yourself or bought, and from which line), mating date, marking colour and performance notes (brood pattern, temper, swarming tendency, honey yield, disease resistance).

The international queen marking colours are set by the last digit of the year and, used together with records, show a queen's age at a glance:

Paper notebook or digital records?

Consistency matters more than method. A card inside the hive roof, a waterproof notebook in your pocket, a spreadsheet or a phone app: whichever you can use regularly is the right one. In the BeesLike app you can also keep inspection, management and treatment records for each hive.

• Brief in the field, tidy at home: Take notes with abbreviations at the hive and transfer them to the main record the same day.
• Photos: A dated photo of a suspicious brood frame strengthens the written note.
• Backups: Back up digital records; photograph the paper notebook. A lost notebook is a season's worth of information.
• Keep it simple: The most common mistake is to set up an over-detailed system and abandon it a few weeks later.

How should records be reviewed at the end of the season?

The real value of records emerges when you sit down and read them at the end of the season. Once a year, look for answers to these questions:

1. Which colonies gave the most honey and were the calmest and healthiest? Use these when rearing queens next year.
2. In which months did varroa counts rise, and how far did treatments bring them down?
3. Did flowering and honey flows shift earlier or later compared with previous years?
4. In which colonies did winter losses occur; do they have anything in common (weak colony, old queen, high mite load)?
5. Which migration or which apiary site was worth the effort?

A few years of records turn into a beekeeping calendar specific to your area. At a time when the climate is changing, the beekeeper who can compare with their own past years is the first to notice change.