19. Tips for the Apiary

19.1 Working with Gloves

• Enable Keep Screen Awake before you head out (Account → Preferences). Your screen stays on for the whole session.
• Use the Today's Inspection Focus field to plan each hive before you open it.
• Dictate notes hands-free — tap the microphone on any text field and speak. Text appends when you stop.

19.2 NFC Tags

• Program tags with the exact hive name and attach them to the outside of the box. Scanning a tag opens the hive instantly without navigating the app.
• Use weatherproof NFC sticker holders if tags are exposed to rain.
• If you rename a hive in the app, re-program its tag with the new name.

19.3 Mite Monitoring Routine

• Test at least every 4–6 weeks during the active season.
• Always sample from the brood area — at least 300 bees.
• Record where the sample was taken from. Honey super samples undercount mites.
• Use the Watch (amber) threshold of 3% as your trigger to plan treatment, not the action threshold of 5%. Waiting until 5% leaves less time to act before population damage occurs.

19.4 Hygienic Behavior Testing

• Run a pin-kill test and a UBeeO test on the same colony in the same inspection period for the most complete picture.
• The 6-hour pin-kill reading is the most discriminating for identifying exceptional VSH candidates — record it even if you also record the 24-hour reading.
• High UBeeO + high pin-kill at 6 hours = strongest combined hygiene signal.

19.5 Queen Management

• Enter a Harbo Score when you perform a brood inspection for VSH. Even a single score is enough for the Queen Score Card to include the trait.
• Toggle Grafting Candidate when a queen meets your selection criteria — this makes her visible in the companion Queen Grafting app.
• Record the Mother Queen when raising queens from a known breeder. This lineage data becomes valuable once you have two or more generations.

19.6 Keeping Good Records

• Record an inspection every time you open a hive, even briefly. Short records ("quick check, queen present, good stores") are more useful than no record at all.
• Use the notes field to record anything unexpected — robbing, unusual brood, unexpected temperament, weather anomalies.
• Mark hives inactive rather than deleting them. Their history feeds your analytics and can explain multi-year trends.