note taking

[pembroke]

So how many of you have tried the HIVETRACK site and what do you think? I like it so far. but wondering how do you use this at hive and out yards? Is there some other kind of portable device that goes to yards with you? Thanks for all your info. Pembroke

[tandemrx]

I am tinkering with Beetight and kind of like it, but am maintaining my paper system as well.

So far I can fairly easily make notes with my smart phone on the beetight web site.  Still think that my paper system (3-ring binder) is my better system, but I like the beetight web interface from my PC and its not horrible from smart phone (mostly check marks, but I still like to leave notes which are hard to do with gloves on and once I move from one hive to the next I immediately forget what I saw. :shock:)

[bigbearomaha]

personally,  I don't see any of the web based options as "in the field" solutions.

as mentioned, unless you have a helper who is listening to you tell them the information to enter into the cellphone, it's going to be a nasty mess trying to run a cell phone in the middle of inspections.

personally, I like to keep a digital voice recorder and read off everything that has to do with the inspection. 

Later, I can play back the info and enter it onto the computer.  Or, better yet, sometimes I have helpers in the beeyard who are in charge of writing down all the pertinent info on paper which can then be entered on the computer later.

on a sit at the computer basis, the benefit of hivetracks is that unlimited yards and hives are free.

but they only take Langs into consideration ( for the time being at least).

Beetight includes other types of hives, but you only get 6 free hives then you have to pay an annual fee for unlimited after that.

if you are a hobbyist with 6 or less hives that include top bar hives, your likely best choice is beetight.

if you only have Lang type hives, and don't want to pay anything, hivetracks might bee the way to go.

for me, the cell phone access is a complete non issue and wouldn't use it if I had a cell phone that could.

Big Bear

[tandemrx]

I thought the smart phone entry would not work well either, but don't knock in until you've tried it.

Many of the entries are "check box" based and I can do all my entry with a stylus on the touch screen with checking check boxes (easy) or using the stylus on an onscreen touch keyboard for specific notes (what I use most of the day anyway, although my phone has a nice finger keyboard too).

It is actually much easier for me to use a stylus on my phone than it is to write with a pen (assuming gloves on).

So beetight can work for me.  I would think that with an Ipad or tablet PC it would be even easier.

Bigger issue is switching back and forth between hives here and there and that takes a little longer with my older smartphone than it does for me with paper.

I do like the voice recorder option, but would want to get a dedicated one for that.  When I use my smart phone as a voice recorder I have to touch the screen here or there as it is not voice activated . . . and it is a pain to get propolis off a touch screen!

For Beetight I think the yearly fee for >6 hives is $15, not exorbitant.  They use a cool feature of bar coding your hives that my smart phone can quickly see and take me to the relevant web page for that hive, but I haven't really used this, although I have tested it and it is pretty cool and easy.  Neat idea anyway.

Still need a little bit more of a big picture view often of my hives, so my paper system is working well in that regard (I can more easily see which hive I have 2 terramycin treatments on and which I might only have 1 and need to do catch up on or something like that).  But beetight does have a decent spreadsheet view that might serve this purpose.

(I am not affiliated with beetight, just a satisfied newbie user).

[L Daxon]

I just have 2 hives and they are in my back yard so it is real easy for me to come in and add notes on the computer after an inspection.  I've checked out both beetight and hivetracks and have been using hivetracks since the end of Sept. after I saw it mentioned on this site.  I like that it automatically records the weather conditions for you at the time of the inspection (both sites do this). 

I am not sure that I would want to be messing with a phone or Ipad while I was out at the hives (just one more piece of equipment for me to misplace/fumble around with--especially in gloves).  Hard copy information can be nice for flipping back through but computer entry is easier.  This is definitely a personal preference/to each his own kind of deal.