For the backyard beekeeper

Three hives on the board: Hive 1, Hive 2, and Hive 3, each a Langstroth stack on cinder blocks at the fence line. The Varroa drop wash every 30 days in season, on a calendar line. The oxalic acid vapor treatment each year on November 15, the broodless window, on a calendar line. Winterize on October 25, on a calendar line. The first full inspection each year on April 1, then swarm checks every 7 days April through June. Queens ride on one line per hive, and the frame boxes, the smoker, and the hive tool have lines of their own. That is the whole list, and it lives on one due board.

You know the last wash. On September 20 you shook a half-cup of bees from a brood frame into the wash jar for each hive, counted the mites on the white lid, and set the bees back. Say those counts to Muse in the chat you already have open and the row is written. Every 30 days in season puts the next wash at October 20, 2026, and the board counts the leftover days on the calendar: 15 days left as of October 5. One ask writes the wash row for all three hives at once, with each hive's own count on it.

You know the yearly dates too. The oxalic acid vapor treatment went into the hives on November 15, 2025, and one year puts the next on November 15, 2026, with 41 days left as of October 5. The winterizing went on October 25, 2025, and one year puts the next on October 25, 2026, with 20 days left: mouse guards on, entrance reducers in, top insulation over the inner cover. The first full inspection of the year was April 1, 2026, and the next one is April 1, 2027, with 178 days left.

Before the next trip to the yard, ask Muse what's due on the hives. The wash comes back with October 20 and the 15 days. The winterizing comes back with October 25 and the 20 days. The vapor treatment comes back with November 15 and the 41 days. The first full inspection comes back with April 1, 2027 and the 178 days. The board subtracts on the calendar and names what is left, and no row sits in the due path. You asked in the chat you already have open. There is no day-to-day owner app to click.

The calendar lines keep their dates. The wash is every 30 days in season, and in season is the season you told Muse: a late tick is logged on the day it happened, and the cadence does not move. The vapor treatment is each year on November 15, because the broodless window is when the treatment counts, and the board does not slide the date because the weather was warm. And a window missed stays missed: if November 15 comes and goes without the treatment, the line stays due across New Year instead of quietly resetting, still on the board in January until you log it. These are the cadences you told Muse, not spec-sheet promises.

The queens ride one line per hive. Hive 2's queen was marked in 2024, so her requeening line is due in 2026; Hive 1's queen, marked 2025, is due in 2027; Hive 3's package queen from this spring is due in 2028. The board keeps them separate, so Hive 2's due date does not take the other two with it. The wood and the gear have their lines too: frames and foundation rotate every 3 to 5 years per frame box, and Hive 2's top box has drawn frames from 2022, so its line says so. The smoker gets its wick and bellows checked, the hive tool gets its edge, and each is a small row on the same board as the bees.

The hives get the inspection habit too. When you close up, tell Muse what the look surfaced, in the same breath as the date: Hive 3 ran hot again, 62 pounds came off Hive 1 on July 12, the bottom board of Hive 2 had failed queen cells in May. Muse keeps each one as a note on that hive, so the temperament history and the pull record ride with the hive instead of riding on a notepad on the porch. Fold the notes into the inspection. The board keeps the lines, and the habit keeps them honest between them.

The board can call ChatGPT too. Subscribe once and ChatGPT hears about it before a treatment window: the vapor line lands on the due board and a signed webhook names the job, so you are not carrying the broodless window around in your head. An agent that speaks MCP can hear the same board. You did not have to ask first.

Every row you log stays in the service log, per hive: wash counts, vapor treatments, pulls with their pounds, and the receipts next to them, the package bees from April and the treatment strips, each with its cost. So the day a hive dies out in a hard winter, or you sell a split, say it once: archived. Muse archives the hive and the due board drops it that day, and the history stays: two years of wash counts, the temperament notes, the queen marked 2024. Hand that history to the buyer or keep it for the yard. If the colony bounces back or the deal falls through, one ask puts the hive back on the board.

One line, said plainly: Maintenance Due is a personal due board and service log for your hives. It is not a veterinary, apiary-registration, or pesticide-label compliance tool, it registers nothing, and it clears nothing with anybody. The treatment label is the law; the local rules are yours to follow. The board counts the calendar days you tell it and keeps the notes you give it.

The equipment log on /equipment-maintenance-log shows how calendar rows and tool rows look. Copy the prompt on /for-your-agent and paste it into Muse. Free.