I'm still working this out. The system depends on the scale, I guess. As a migratory bee farmer production hives are each one of a load; it may be easier to work in batches. Breeding and II is going to need a pretty rigid convention but that's another topic. I did try some normal data analysis but the conclusion for me was that hive is irrelevant unless you are trying to record components such as supers or queen excluders individually. My essentials can be tracked using only the queen (it's her colony) and the stand, which might be empty but provides the static element.
Notes are by queen/colony (a Q- or split uses the former queen). They get names, but only when they are marked and around for a while. Bella (Italian-ish) has two open mated daughters D1 and D2. They are currently in nuc boxes made up from Carrie's colony. She was formerly C1, the film is not irrelevant. If they look good they will get names, maybe after overwintering. Stands and apiary labels are composite, so Home by the Forsythia (HF), Allotment North East corner (ANE); more memorable than numbers. Occasional sketch maps are a reminder of who is where. Nucs and splits are placed in relation to a parent stand (HRb). If notes are chronological, the only essential is changes of stand.
Labelling could use numbers, names (personal, initialised, places, landmarks, botanical, compass or any other theme), letters in one or more alphabets (Greek, phonetic etc). Anything that makes sense to you.
