Dear Diary

“Keeping a diary” seems to be something that most people have done, in one way or another, at some point in their lives. It’s usually as angst-ridden teenagers that we scribbled down incredible insights (hands up those who admit to identifying ever-so-slightly with Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole, aged 13 and three quarters).  Those diaries were always supposed to be secret, but as we got older we didn’t have the time or inclination to retain the habit. Perhaps social media, with its instant access and global reach, has replaced the traditional form of diary-keeping, but there is definitely still a place for old-fashioned observation in the world of beekeeping. Fictional diaries such as ‘The Diary of a Provincial Lady’ (E M Delafield) and ‘Diary of a Nobody’ (G&W Grossmith) are amusing and tell a good story, dealing as they do with the comings and goings of ‘ordinary people’, whereas Samuel Pepys’s Diary and Daniel Defoe’s ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ are informative and useful in helping us understand life in a definite place and time. The ‘diaries’ or records kept by scientists are even more so, and this is where the link with beekeeping comes in.

When you start your beekeeping life, you may only have one or two colonies and so it will be fairly
easy to remember what’s going on, when and where. Having said that, we have been known to mis-remember things e.g. which queen bee is in which hive, even when there are only two of them! As time goes on, and as the number of colonies rises, remembering becomes more difficult, and so we urge people to get into the habit of record-keeping right from the start. Records are not just for checking what you did last time you did a hive inspection, but they are essential when you want to look at performance – colony build-up, productivity (bees and honey), resistance to disease etc.

However you keep your records is up to you and the system should suit your way of working – there is no Records Inspector, so don’t worry about that. In the UK you do have to keep a veterinary record of any treatments that you have used on your colonies, but in France it is simply good practice. We find it enormously useful to look back on our notes when we are considering treatment against varroa mite, and also at the feeding records. My records take the shape of a simple diary entry for each visit to our apiaries but you can use whatever system works for you… there are even a number of smartphone apps you can use to store all your notes digitally. 

I note the date, time, and weather conditions, and, if doing a full hive inspection, I make a note of the five things I always look for. These are: Queen or evidence of queen, brood in all stages, stores (pollen, nectar, honey), space, and pests/disease. I also note any extra activity such as feeding, treating for varroa, or whacking hornets with my badminton racket. It may not be as interesting to read as Mr Pepys’s Diary but every now and again, looking back over the notes I’ve made in previous years, it can be surprising. We have a tendency to think “Last year it was much warmer/nicer/sunnier” but my notes reveal that it was just as wet and cold as it is now. One thing I have noted though is that I tend to receive my first bee sting of the year in mid-March…..hopefully this year will be different!