1. Bidata professional Beekeeping software. Hive note entries made easy and effective.

2. Customer requirements: • There is a need for collecting and comparing data in the apiary. • These comparisons are needed for improved beekeeping standards and profitability. • Data comparison is needed for selecting queens, particularly for queen breeding. • There is a need to keep track of Varroa infestation and specific bee related diseases. • Graphic data display makes direct comparison easy.

3. Objectives: • Make software to help beekeepers perform routine tasks. • Make the software easy to use. • Make it easy to retrieve useful data for comparing queen performance.

4. Key data needed: • Honey harvest. The more honey the better, but it also depends on the work you put in to get it . Think about 6 hours work to get 45 kg of honey versus 10 hours work to get 60 kg of honey. I doubt that the extra 4 hours work is economically viable! • Aggressiveness: (important for your working conditions) • Swarm tendency: (important to avoid wasting time catching bees) • Steadiness: (important for the work needed to clear a frame of bees or to find the queen) • Sickness: ( the less medicine you need the better honey you harvestand the lower your workload)

5. Organisation of the input: Below is shown a diagram of how the data is organised on the quick input screen. Basic data

6. How does this software help you ? no.1 • BiData Software is designed as a tool to help beekeepers to improve their beekeeping. • The User interface is designed to make it as easy as possible to input data and to retrieve data from the database in a graphical way that makes it easy to compare data. • Although there is a temptation to skip note taking when you are busy in the bee yard, the time spent taking notes is not wasted. Carefully taken notes are essential to successful beekeeping

7. How does this software help you ? no.2 The queen’s basic data is built using buckfast notation. The queen identification is built from your Initials, Race, Year, ID and the hive number; the program asks for this basic data when you add a new beehive to your apiary. It is of course possible to enter another kind of identification for the queen..

8. Queen breeder entry screen2a

9. Queen time table on queen

10. How does this software help you ? no.3 The date for the hive note is simply taken from a calendar. This calendar is also used when you want to add a new hive note for the queen.

11. How does this software help you ? no.4 • A new input screen makes it very easy to enter data into the database. • The screen contains all the available variable data that is needed for the beekeeper to keep track of the apiary. • The control of Varroa Destructor, and the various bee diseases is kept in a separate database.

12. The disease Database entry To make it easy to keep track of disease and treatment, you have a special dedicated database, with link to the hive. The various items can be selected by drop lists.

13. New Grouping and Colouring of Hives By use of multi select-ion it is possible to group and colour mark the hives. The multi selection can also be used for bulk adding data

14. Graphic show of data: Data can be shown in a graphical way making it easy to compare data with- in one bee yard. The graphic display is based on an index calculation made from the daily hive notes.

15. Search engine: The search in the database is done by calling up a specially designed search form, where the data sought is simply clicked with the mouse. The resulting data search is then shown in a spreadsheet style window, where only the selected data is shown.

16. Example of a query: • Here is an example of a query done by search on: hive, a single bee yard, queen, honey harvest and Index. • A query can be done on all fields in the database and can also be shown in sorted order.

17. Our advantages: Because EDBi is a foundation of active beekeepers, founded with the purpose of making a software tool for use within beekeeping, the software has evolved to be of maximum usefulness and minimum workload for the busy beekeeper. Because the software development is ongoing, the user interface continues to improve, and user reaction to the work is very welcome.

18. Advantages: 1. • The Software is easy to use and is designed to minimise time at the computer. • It makes data comparison very easy. • It gives an easy way to compare queens within the beeyard, but also queens placed in different beeyards, which is not normally possible. This is due to the index calculation feature. • The software has been developed with help from professional beekeepers and queen breeders, and the author has been keeping bees for 25 years now. This guarantees that the concept is not just taken out of the air, but is relevant to and derived from experience in practical beekeeping.

19. What is needed from You: All you need to do is to take notes in the beeyard, and when time is available, transfer this data into the software. When the Bee Year is over, just calculate the index, and you have a tool to help you judge your queens in a meaningful way.