The hive you inspected two weeks ago and the hive you're opening today are not the same colony. The population has changed, the forage situation has changed, the queen's laying pattern may have shifted, and if you're not tracking what you found last time, the changes mean nothing without the baseline. A missing inspection record doesn't just create a documentation gap — it breaks the diagnostic chain that tells you whether what you're seeing is a problem developing over time or a normal cycle.
The Frame Count as the Productivity Metric
# of frames with brood, # of frames of honey/pollen, and # of empty frames with number of brood boxes are the colony condition snapshot. A strong spring buildup in a Langstroth hive should be filling most available frames with brood by late April — eight or nine frames in a ten-frame box, with two honey/pollen frames at the edges. Finding six brood frames and four empty frames in the same box in the same conditions is a population problem that needs investigation.
The frame count across visits shows whether the colony is expanding, stable, or contracting. A colony that shows eight brood frames in April, eight in May, and six in June has lost two brood frames of population — without the sequential record, that June count looks normal in isolation. In context, it's a decline indicator that warrants a thorough queen inspection.
frames of full capped honey at each inspection tracks honey stores against colony demand. Going into winter with four full capped frames is a different situation than going in with two, in a climate where the cluster needs to move through stored honey for six months. The decision about whether to feed and how much to feed before winter is a calculation that requires the current store level.
Queen Management
Queen info and notes for queen with laying pattern are the reproductive health fields. A queen that's missed at three consecutive inspections — seen the following field not confirming a queen sighting — has either failed or is present but not visible. The distinction matters. A failed queen needs an emergency response: accept laying workers or purchase a replacement. A queen present but not showing requires continued inspection rather than intervention.
laying pattern is the field that catches early queen failure before absconding or aggressive supersedure. A solid concentric laying pattern with minimal uncapped cells indicates a vigorous, mated queen. A scattered, spotty pattern — one or two larvae skipped per capped brood section — is an early indicator of failing sperm storage or disease. Logging the assessment at each inspection creates the pattern that makes the declining queen visible before the colony is in crisis.
Pest and Disease Log
pest found, notes on what was found, treatments made, and diseases found are the health management record. Varroa destructor infestation levels at each inspection — monitored by alcohol wash or sugar roll to get a mite count per 100 bees — tracked against treatments made shows whether the treatment protocol is controlling the mite load or whether resistance is developing in that apiary. A mite count that drops after treatment and climbs back to pre-treatment levels within six weeks indicates either reinfestation from neighboring colonies or a treatment efficacy problem.
temperament of the bees is the field that documents the defensive behavior profile over time. A colony that's been calm through five inspections and shows elevated defensiveness at the sixth warrants investigation — temperament change often precedes or accompanies queen failure, Africanization, or robbing events. The previous temperament records are what make the current anomaly identifiable as an anomaly rather than normal behavior variation.
weather and Aperi location anchor each inspection in the environmental context that affects all the other observations. An inspection conducted at 12°C with overcast skies produces different bee behavior, different frame presentation, and different traffic readings than the same hive at 24°C with full sun. The weather record is the variable that explains inspection-to-inspection behavioral variation that would otherwise be attributed to colony state changes.