BeeKeeper Hobby Edition

BeeKeeper Hobby Edition is finished. Thank you to all our beekeepers for your valuable input. Hobby Edition was created for beekeepers with 150 hives or less. This program is different than our Professional Edition in that it is a trimmed down version and yet it still retains the ability to effectively track your beekeeping operation. The following information gives you a quick look at each of the features in Hobby Edition.

Main Menu Buttons:

Location: Opens a list showing all the Locations where Hives are kept. Sub-forms allow you to add new locations, display detailed information about each location and edit. This form tracks such information as the location's area, what crops are used, both primary and secondary, the owner of the location (if applicable), rent paid (if applicable) and room for extra remarks. The print feature allows reports to be printed from this form including the Location Report. This report allows you to take single locations and choose which information you want printed.

Hive: You are allowed a maximun of 150 hives. A counter on the New Hive form lets you know how many hives are still available before you reach your maximum. The Main form lists all the hives, date they were created, location and source. From this form you can create new hives or edit and move existing hives. Hive History can also be used here to track where the hive has been. This helps in the tracking of mites/pests. When hives are deleted, you have the option of placing the record in the Trash Bin. The Trash Bin stores deleted records for later review and analysis. For more information on the Trash Bin see Additional Features.

Sub-Menu Buttons:

Queen: Opens a list of Queen installs. From this list you can see such things as the hive, breed and breeder. A Filter allows you to narrow down your list to specific requirements such as breed or hive. There are three custom fields for each queen install record. This allows you to track information pertinent to your operation regarding your queens. The print feature allows a full report of all your queens to be printed and queen breeds by location.

Production: Can be recorded by production by location or individual hive. Location based production tracks the number of supers installed and harvested. Production by Hive tracks weight of honey harvested from each hive. Both production tables have custom fields so you can track information pertinent to your operation. The filter can narrow down your data in either table. The reports allow a production list from either table or a report on production by queen breed.

Hive Count: Opens a list of locations and allows you to track the number of hives at each location. The count can be broken down to single, double, other or empty, and by the date with a total shown. A filter can help you narrow down the information in the list.

Supplemental Feeding: Opens a form that allows you to track the supplemental feeding either by hives or in a location. Medication can also be tracked in this form. The filter helps define your information by location, food, medication or by a specific date. New and Edit form can be accessed from this form. The print feature allows you to print a report from this information.

Hive Testing: The Hive Test Results form is a list of the locations with the individual hives, showing tests done and the results of those tests. The table includes fields such as number of mites, percentage of infestation, and level of infestation. The filter helps narrow down the information by the location, hive, test done, results, or by date. Reports can also be printed from the table.

Weather & Notes: This form has two tabs one for weather reports and one for notes. Weather and Notes show all the reports on file by date and location. From these form you can add new reports or edit existing ones. A report can be highlighted and details can be recalled, there is plenty of room for comments.

Hive Treatment: Opens a form that lists the treatments either by location or by hive. The filter can be used to show only certain hives, location, treatment used, or date. The new and edit forms can be accessed from this form. The print feature allows reports to be printed.

Exit: Exit closes the whole program.

Additional Features:

Help: Each form has a help button that takes you directly to the corresponding help page. The help menu gives you information on each form and how to use it.

Back up: This feature allows you to back-up all your files for security and safety.

Restore from Backup: The purpose of the Restore Database File form is to select and open an existing BeeKeeper database file. This existing file can either be a backed up copy of your database, or a copy of a database from an earlier version of BeeKeeper.

Edit Database Sub-Tables: This form gives you the ability to enter/edit information on the program's 10 sub-tables. In this one form you can change information on crop types, hive types, tests, treatments, queen breeds, etc.

Copy to Clipboard: With Copy to Clipboard, all the data in the grid is copied onto the computer's clipboard. You can then open a spreadsheet program -- like Excel, Lotus 123, Works -- and paste the clipboard contents into the sheet.

Multiple Selections:BeeKeeper has the ability to do Multiple Selections on most of its lists. If a list does not have the ability to multiple select, it is only because there is no need to have this feature on that particular list.

Multi-Edit: Some of the grids in this program will allow you to edit more than one record at a time. These are called Multi-Edits. Grids/Lists that will allow Multi-Edits are: Hive, Queen, Supplemental Feeding, Hive Testing, and Hive Treatment.

Trash Bin: The purpose of the Trash Bin form is to display Hives that have been deleted. When deleting hives, you are given an option of deleting it outright, or deleting it and placing it in the Trash Bin. When deleting a hive and putting it in the Trash Bin, you can enter the date of the deletion as well as a reason. Then, at a later date, you can review all the hives that you deleted and the reasons.

Date Filter: The purpose of the Date Filter is to display only specified dates in a grid using a From Date and a To Date. All grids in this program that show dates have a Date Filt. button in the Filter. Clicking the Date Filt. button opens the Date Filter Form which contains two calendars. When the filter is active, the grids will only show the records starting with and including the From Date up to and including the To Date.

Text Editor: The purpose of Editor is to expand the smaller remarks text boxes in the program. The New/Edit Location form and the Weather form have remark boxes. These text boxes are not limited by size. Though not recommended, you could write pages of data in these remark boxes.

Information on purchasing BeeKeeper Hobby Edition