Smokebook: Beekeeping Hive Log

Log a hive inspection with your gloves on, see which colonies need treating for mites, and keep the treatment record your vet office asks for. At the hive, queen, brood, temper, stores and queen cells are five rows of big tiles: one tap each, sized for a gloved thumb. Add or take off a super and the drawing of the hive changes with it. If you’d rather talk than type, dictate the note. It is transcribed on the iPhone, and no audio is kept. Mites are held against the month. Enter an alcohol wash, a sugar roll or a sticky-board count, and Smokebook works out the load (percent, or mites per day) and compares it with that month’s guide value: OK, Watch or Treat. Each hive keeps its mite curve for the year, so you can see the summer climb and whether the treatment worked. Treatments are logged for several colonies at once: oxalic, formic or lactic acid, thymol or strips, with batch number,…