MacPherson's | A Beekeeper's Handbook

Matt MacPherson started beekeeping around 2017 and made plenty of mistakes but also managed to successfully carry forward hives through a cold Canadian winter. He's written notes when needed but never had a dedicated notebook. Apps are great, using them when he can, but while often wearing gloves when inspecting hives, makes a phone impossible to use.

This is the result of frustration with never having something for hive inspections. This simple journal can help you track your hives throughout the season and give a great historical record to compare how they are progressing. Track the brood chamber by frame, note treatments, queens, and much more conveniently in one place.

Your initial year will show the progress of your hive from nuc to full colony. On year 2, use the remaining pages, or a new journal to track the growth, and split of the colony again. Compare your hive year over year and find out if you are ahead of schedule, a little behind, or right on track. An area for notes gives space to write your thoughts on why the hive is growing faster or slower. Maybe it is due to an earlier than normal bloom of dandelions. Compare your feeding schedules from one year to the next so you are ready to go as soon as the bees need it.

Overall, this is the first attempt to make a book that is most importantly, simple to use. We want it to be easy for a new beekeeper to begin tracking the life of their hive and with this, be able to share with their mentor the progress. If you use this tool, please send us your thoughts. Do you feel we are missing something you track that may help with another keeper's journey? We'd love to include it in a version 2, if we are lucky enough to be able to release one.

For now, light your smoker, grab a hive tool and bring a pen. Let's see if we get stung.