There are a lot of good reasons to keep a record of hive inspections. And there are probably just as many or more versions of hive inspection forms available on the internet. Paper handwritten forms are available for download from many websites. There are lots of different kinds available. When we redesigned this site we actually took our PDF version offline. But suppose you want to go electronic and want flexibility in what you record and you do not want to break the bank to get started. Well, today we are going to explore how to use Evernote for keeping a hive inspection journal.
The great thing with Evernote is you can get started keeping an electronic hive inspection journal almost for free. The basic version of Evernote is available for free and there is a paid subscription service that adds some more bells and whistles. For this exercise, we will use the basic free account.
I personally use Evernote for a variety of note-keeping tasks, as well as writing blog posts. I even wrote this post in Evernote. Though not as consistent as I should be, I use it for keeping notes about my hive inspections as well. With Evernote, I can create a standard template (get a copy here) of the information I wish to collect but can also tailor individual records as needed. This helps to maintain consistency in the information collected during each inspection but allows for some variation if I need it.
Let’s get started with Evernote
Evernote is available as a stand-alone app (iOS, Android, and Windows) or via web access. It also comes in a free and premium version. For many users, the free version will be adequate, but the paid version has some useful features. To get Evernote you can follow this link. If you use the link and are new to Evernote, once you register, install, and sign in, you can get a free month of Evernote Premium. I will earn points for credits towards a premium account. So we both win.
I think the app version has some more flexibility and tools than the web version but both work very well. The free version does limit the number of devices you can install the app on. So if you are new to Evernote, you need to decide what works best for you, web versus the app. Because of the device limit, one suggested tip for free version users is to use the app on your mobile device and the web access for your computer.
Setting up your Notebooks
Once you have your account, you will need to set up your structure of notes. I would suggest creating a notebook for your hive inspection notes. If you have multiple bee yards you could create sub-notebooks for each bee yard. In Evernote, the collection of subnotebooks is called a stack.
- Find the create notebook icon and click to create a new notebook
- Give your new notebook a title (Hive_Inspections for example) and click create
- Optional Step: Create notebooks for each yard and create a master hive inspection notebook by creating a stack.
Setting up your Notes
After you set up your notebook(s) you will need to create your hive inspection template. This is simply a prebuilt note with the information you want to collect on your inspections. You can use a naming convention that works for you but I recommend something along the line of hive_inspection_form_template. When you are ready to do an inspection, you will duplicate this note and rename it. (You can get a copy of my template here. Note you must have an Evernote account) Give the note a name unique to that hive. I like to include the date in the name. Another option is to create individual tags for each hive. Then you can add the hive specific tag each time you inspect that hive. This way you can sort on the tag to review your inspections.
- Create your inspection template or use ours
- When ready to do an inspection simply duplicate your template inspection form and give it a unique name. For example hive_inspection_05_21_2018 #1 (One note: the web version of Evernote does not allow for easy duplication of notes. The easiest workaround is to open your template, do a ctrl-a and then paste that into a new note.)
- You can also create a tag or two that are specific to the hive and/or apiary. Add the appropriate tags to the note for sorting and searching later.
- Head to the apiary
Now you are all set to go out and do your inspections. Grab your tablet, smartphone, or if you are worried about getting your devices sticky, print out a form and then enter what info you record into Evernote after you have left your apiary. Happy inspecting.