Towards A Bee Log Notation

I just finished combining yet another hive, and adding two new purchased queens to two strong, but queenless, hives- and I think I am seeing a trend of losing queens in each Spring- and I am having a difficult time keeping on top of it. I don't really know what is "normal"- and as I have more hives, I lose more queens, and so it seems more dramatic maybe. But talking this over with my best buddy and beekeeping mentor, he has said the same thing for years- this isn't like the old days, and something new is happening. I guess I have to agree- it is certainly, along with mysterious hive losses and mites, the biggest problem I deal with.

I had as of yesterday, 20 hives. I have found 5 or 6 hives queenless in the past month. Three I combined, two I added new queens to. Three times I added nice healthy (I assume) capped queen cells, and twice (or more?) I added eggs, hoping they'd make their own queens. One did - and is doing great. All of the others- except  once- failed this year. Queens hatched, but a week later, were gone. One started laying eggs, I even saw her and she looked great,and a week later, was gone. Eggs got capped, but no queen cells made. And twice- already this year- I have seen laying workers- which I have seen a number of times in the past few year (and now I don't try to save them anymore- it never seems to work and takes too much time- I just combine them asap).

Losing queens could be bad luck. But it makes me wonder- I've had a great 4 or 5 years with minimal losses- and this year, this past winter, saw a real weakening of my hives. I have had them tested by two government agencies, with no clue as to whats happening. Plus- anecdotal, I have heard from at least 5 o more local beekeepers, that they lost all of their hives, or most of them, this past winter.

And- I have no idea why. Minimal nosema, regular mite treatments and low counts, young queens, no comb older than 3 of 4 years, lots of pollen and food...it all seems like it would tend to strong hives his year. But thats not what is happening- or isn't yet.

So- one super important tool in my kit is my log book. What I am finding is that its very hard for me to visualize what needs doing at any particular time, and when. So- I've been trying to develop a visual tool that helps me to see quickly what needs doing. It is primarily oriented to making sure I check for queen cells to prevent swarming, but also to monitor queen health and presence. Without such a tool I find I can overlook a hive, and not inspect for a few weeks or more, and when I do, its broodless and crashing- something I could have prevented had I caught it sooner. 

The tool- and its a work in progress- is a new notation. I am guessing that everyone who keeps logs likely has some sort of notation system (Miller in 50 Years as a Beekeeper talks about his way-back-when- and I always think of him when logging things), and I have always kept records, and tried lots of ways. The most solid way is in a lab book, which I carry with me in my bag ( blue book in my apiary bag below):

Inside the book, I have three parts- a general log with general notes about what needs doing, and a page each for each hive, as below. I put on stick-on letters on each corner, so i can quickly thumb to the page. This is a good way, as I go though each hive I can open to the page and see what I did last, or what I need to do. Without it- even a day later- I can't remember what the heck I did.

The new addition this year to the above, is shown below. Its a grid in calendar form with the entire Spring and Summer on it, dates and days across the top, and a line for each hive. Its the same height as the book, and I fold it up inside when not using it. But the main thing is- I can map out, in time, what I need to do, what I did, and what I need to look for in the future. Plus, I use colors to alert me to hives that need special attention. Plus- I can easily count days- for example, in determining when a queen cell might hatch or when I need to check for eggs -and mark this. There are thick lines for each week as well.

The vertical green line is the historic time that Blackberry blossoms here, and I have one further down the chart for Knotweed (and earlier for Maple). It gives me a visual as to what times I am targeting for honey flow, and how close I am. Below I see I am only a few weeks away from Blackberry, which is concerning for the hives (red) that are currently queenless.

Here's the notation- its a work in progress- but the basic idea is that on a day I inspect, I put a solid box around the date, and draw an "x" (the graph was done in Autocad, and each box has a light x already). Then, I color each triangle of the x. The top triangle is for the queen- if she's good, its blue, if she's gone- or no eggs- its red. Queen cells present and cut are orange. If she's new and i need to check her- its green. The right triangle is brood, and the left is for eggs, with similar colors. The lowest is for general hive health, and action- green means I need to do something. I also mark in how tall the hive is, and how strong (subjective).

It means I have color pencils with me- but thats been easy so far. There's lots more I can log on the main log pages- but the main thing is I am making sure that each hive has been inspected, and that queenless hives, or hives in trouble, as identified. I put a square in without an "x" for future dates I need to do something- like check for eggs (for example- bottom line above shows a red square all around- no queen, eggs, brood- and the next day is green when I put in a new queen and have to watch her- and there is a empty square for next week when I need to inspect that hive).

I have tried lots of ways of doing this- and the above is simple- but undoubtedly can get simpler still. Below is an idea I used earlier this year on a white board at home, where I mapped the apiaries, and marked out what I did on each hive and when, and used color to indicate things. But there's no time sense- I don't know what needs doing unless I redo it each day or week- and I cant take it in the field. So the paper solution seems best. The goal is to have an overall sense of all the hives at once- how they are doing together. The word for this I think is "Groking"- from Robert Heinlein- to get a sense of the whole thing. The hive calendar is  one tool that helps me- and I have a few ideas for others!