AI Beehive Health Report — 2026-10-22

As of October 22, 2026, three of your four hives — Hive #1, Hive #2, and Hive #3 — are holding textbook brood temperatures with strong, rising acoustic energy consistent with active syrup processing; your Iris hive continues to hold a solid warm offset above the 55.1°F (12.8°C) outdoor temperature but her acoustic step-down persists unchanged now six days in, and that remains the one signal worth confirming with a hands-on look. The foraging season is closed at Los Alamos and three of the last seven days had little or no foraging weather, so the single most important action this week is a routine heft of every hive — temperature, sound, and vibration cannot tell you what is stored in the cells, and a colony can read thermally steady right up until its fuel runs out.

Across all three acoustically active hives, the 14-day spectral shift toward lower frequencies (100–350 Hz up 5–11 dB vs. their own baselines) while brood temperatures simultaneously warm toward the 93–97°F (34–36°C) setpoint is a textbook syrup-processing signature: active evaporation and fanning concentrate the 150–200 Hz ventilation harmonics and drive the colony fundamental band, matching published descriptions of a nectar/syrup-curing colony (Peters et al. 2019; Stabentheiner et al. 2010). Iris's divergence from this apiary-wide acoustic trend — stable temperature, falling sound — remains the meaningful outlier to resolve physically.

All four hives show 24-hour temperature swings of 0.7–2.7°F (0.4–1.5°C) against an outdoor swing of ~21°F (11.7°C), confirming the Apimaye R≈6.93 enclosures continue to buffer the brood cores extremely effectively; outdoor humidity ranged 43–64% and is pulling in-hive humidity toward the drier end of the healthy band through open screened floors — a shared weather-physics pattern across the apiary, most pronounced in Hive #3 where the 24-hour humidity low reached 34.3%.

• Iris warning Score: 62/100
  📋 Overall Health

  Your Iris hive is averaging 92.2°F (33.5°C) with a tight 2.7°F (1.5°C) daily swing and a strong warm offset above the 55.1°F (12.8°C) outdoor temperature — brood damping is fully intact, and your logs confirm continued daily 1-gallon feeder top-ups (~17 lb sugar since October 5). The sustained acoustic step-down that began around October 16 persists a sixth day: all 10 spectral bands sit 17–26 dB below Iris's own all-time baseline (24h avg –51.3 dBFS vs. her historical –28.7 dB), humidity is a comfortable 52.5%, and vibration kurtosis is 2.7 with a stable RMS of 0.0175 g — the warm temperature and intact damping are reassuring, but the acoustic divergence from the apiary-wide rising trend remains unexplained and warrants a look at your next inspection to confirm brood pattern and queen status.

  🌅 Diurnal Cycle Patterns

  Temperature cycles tightly between 90.8–93.5°F (32.6–34.1°C) with a 2.7°F (1.5°C) daily amplitude and a clear mid-period warm peak — well within the healthy brood-clamping threshold; vibration shows a consistent daily rhythm (14 of 15 days, baseline ~16.3 mG rising to ~25.3 mG peaks) consistent with normal fanning/activity, and the heater-scan gas curve sits uniformly ~3× below the outdoor reference across all 10 steps, reflecting the colony's resident VOC load from syrup processing. The most notable diurnal feature is the acoustic rhythm: the dominant daily-cycle band has shifted from 600–800 Hz to 1500–3600 Hz over the window, the 420–500 Hz band has shed 16 dB and the 260–350 Hz fundamental band 15.5 dB — the rhythm is now concentrated in the high-frequency residual rather than the colony fundamental, a pattern distinct from every other hive in the apiary.

  🔬 Correlations & Discoveries

  sound_energy vs temperature (14d) | r = +0

  Iris's temperature has warmed +5.2°F (+2.9°C) over 14 days while sound energy has fallen –24.6 dBFS — a decoupling that stands in sharp contrast to the positive sound-temperature co-movement seen in Hive #1 (r=+0.58) and Hive #3 (r=+0.76). The change-point analysis confirms a temperature step up around Oct 13 and a sound step down around Oct 16; the retained brood damping argues against an abrupt population loss, but a reduced or paused brood nest (supersedure gap, smaller cluster, or a natural late-season brood contraction) could produce lower acoustic amplitude without disturbing thermoregulation — confirming brood and queen status at the next inspection will resolve this.

  📚 Reference: Kanelis et al. 2023, Biology 12:1392, Ramsey et al. 2020, Sci. Rep. 10:9798, Minaud et al. 2024, Ecol. Indic. 169:112961
  ⚠️ Issue: Sustained acoustic step-down against Iris's own baseline persisting since ~October 16 (now 6 days): all 10 spectral bands 17–26 dB below her all-time norms, diverging from the rising acoustic trend across the other three hives — worth confirming queen and brood status at next inspection

  ⚠️ Issue: Stores unconfirmed — ~17 lb sugar consumed since October 5 is active intake but not confirmed capped reserves; telemetry cannot see what is in the cells

  ▹ Action: Heft Iris this week as part of the apiary-wide October stores check — temperature and intact damping are reassuring but cannot confirm stores, and a colony can read thermally steady right up until fuel runs out

  ▹ Action: At heft, note population coverage, brood pattern, and whether a queen or open brood is visible — this directly contextualises the acoustic step-down since October 16

  ▹ Action: Continue daily 1:1 feeder top-ups; if daytime highs drop consistently below 50°F (10°C), switch to fondant or a sugar brick placed directly over the cluster — 1:1 syrup cannot be cured in the cold

  ▹ Action: If light at heft, feed by weight toward a stores target of at least two full deep combs (~40–50 lb gross)
• Hive #2 healthy Score: 78/100
  📋 Overall Health

  Your Hive #2 is averaging 93.2°F (34.0°C) with a tight 1.9°F (1.1°C) daily swing — textbook single-deep brood regulation — and a strong warm offset above the 55.1°F (12.8°C) outdoor temperature (note: hub thermometer reads warmer due to PCB self-heating; weather service figures are used for all outdoor comparisons). Your logs confirm continued daily feeder top-ups (~8 lb sugar since October 5), and the 14-day rising acoustic trend of +7.9 dBFS continues with all spectral bands 6–11 dB above Hive #2's own all-time baseline, dominant energy in the 200–350 Hz fundamental band consistent with active syrup-processing fanning; humidity averaged 50.0% (24h range 46.8–54.1%), comfortably within the healthy 50–70% band, and vibration kurtosis is 3.4 with an RMS of 0.0131 g — all normal. Heft Hive #2 this week: as the only single-deep in the apiary it carries the smallest reserve buffer and stores cannot be confirmed from telemetry.

  🌅 Diurnal Cycle Patterns

  Temperature holds 92.1–94.0°F (33.4–34.5°C) with a compressed 1.9°F (1.1°C) amplitude — the Apimaye enclosure doing its job; acoustic bands show a clear daily rhythm in 9/10 bands, with the dominant rhythm shifting from 500–600 Hz to 350–420 Hz across the window and the 100–150 Hz band strengthening (1.0→4.0 dB), consistent with intensifying low-frequency fanning/processing activity. The gas heater-scan shows the most dynamic daily rhythm of any hive in the apiary: the 100°C step swings ±19% around its mean with a shift from 100°C to 320°C as the dominant rhythm band — the heavy low-temperature volatiles (likely syrup alcohols and organic acids) are cycling strongly with colony activity, while the mid-range steps stabilise; this is a syrup-processing colony running a healthy daily metabolic rhythm.

  🔬 Correlations & Discoveries

  gas_resistance vs temperature (14d) | r = -0.31

  The deconfounded partial correlation (r=–0.31) between gas resistance and in-hive temperature in Hive #2 reflects the expected VOC-thermogenesis coupling: as the colony warms its brood nest and increases metabolic activity, more reducing volatiles (syrup-processing alcohols, brood pheromones, fanning-circulated hive compounds) accumulate, driving gas resistance lower; the 100°C heater-scan step's +37% energy shift and strong daily rhythm confirm the low-temperature volatile load is the dominant driver — a healthy metabolic fingerprint, not a colony concern.

  📚 Reference: Maisonnasse et al. 2010, PLoS ONE 5(10):e13531, Bencsik et al. 2023, Sensors 23:3588, Burgues & Marco 2018, Sensors 18(2):339
  ⚠️ Issue: Stores unconfirmed — single-deep volume is the smallest reserve buffer in the apiary; ~8 lb sugar consumed since October 5 is the lowest per-hive uptake and telemetry cannot confirm adequate winter reserves

  ▹ Action: Heft Hive #2 first or alongside the others this week — single-deep capacity means the smallest margin before stores run out, and telemetry alone cannot confirm adequacy; if cells are full and the colony is simply not taking more syrup, that is the confirmation you need

  ▹ Action: Continue daily 1:1 feeder top-ups; if daytime highs drop consistently below 50°F (10°C), place fondant or a sugar brick directly over the cluster — bees cannot cure syrup in the cold

  ▹ Action: If light at heft, feed by weight toward a stores target of at least two full deep combs (~40–50 lb gross)
• Hive #1 healthy Score: 87/100
  📋 Overall Health

  Your Hive #1 remains the most acoustically energetic hive in the apiary relative to its own baseline, averaging 94.6°F (34.8°C) — comfortably inside the ideal 93–97°F (34–36°C) brood band — with an exceptionally tight 0.7°F (0.4°C) daily swing, the tightest brood clamping in the apiary; your logs confirm continued daily feeder top-ups (~8 lb sugar since October 5), and all 10 spectral bands sit 6–11 dB above Hive #1's own all-time baseline with the dominant energy in the 260–350 Hz colony fundamental, consistent with a well-populated, actively processing colony. Humidity averaged 50.3% (24h range 48.0–52.6%), well within the healthy band, and vibration kurtosis is 2.5 with an RMS of 0.0163 g — stable and normal; heft Hive #1 this week, as a strong acoustic and thermal signature is reassuring but cannot confirm what is in the cells.

  🌅 Diurnal Cycle Patterns

  Temperature traces an almost perfectly flat 94.2–94.9°F (34.5–35.0°C) arc across 24 hours — a 0.7°F (0.4°C) peak-to-trough swing against the outdoor's ~21°F (11.7°C), the finest brood-clamping precision in this apiary; the strongest acoustic daily rhythm lives in the 1500–3600 Hz band (11.5 dB amplitude), with a secondary rhythm in 20–50 Hz vibration, both consistent with normal activity and fanning cycles. The gas heater-scan shows a 25% energy rise at the 100°C step and 19% at 150°C over the window, with only 2/10 heater steps carrying a significant daily rhythm — the low-temperature volatile load is building gradually (brood pheromones, syrup processing) while the mid-to-high temperature steps remain stable, a clean metabolic-expansion fingerprint with no anomalous shape changes.

  🔬 Correlations & Discoveries

  sound_energy vs temperature (14d) | r = +0.58

  The partial correlation of r=+0.58 between sound energy and in-hive temperature (controlling for outdoor weather) in Hive #1 reflects the tight coupling between metabolic activity and thermogenesis: as heater-bee density and fanning effort increase, both acoustic output and brood-nest temperature rise together — the tightest brood clamping in the apiary alongside the highest sustained acoustic energy above baseline is consistent with a densely populated colony running vigorous syrup-processing thermodynamics (Kleinhenz et al. 2003; Stabentheiner et al. 2010).

  📚 Reference: Stabentheiner et al. 2010, PLoS ONE 5(1):e8967, Peters et al. 2019, J. R. Soc. Interface 16:20180561, Kleinhenz et al. 2003, J. Exp. Biol. 206:4217
  ⚠️ Issue: Stores unconfirmed — ~8 lb sugar consumed since October 5; telemetry cannot confirm adequate winter reserves

  ▹ Action: Heft Hive #1 this week as part of the apiary-wide October stores check — the strong acoustic and thermal signature is the best in the apiary but cannot confirm what is in the cells

  ▹ Action: Continue daily 1:1 feeder top-ups; if daytime highs drop consistently below 50°F (10°C), switch to fondant or a sugar brick placed directly over the cluster

  ▹ Action: If light at heft, feed by weight toward a stores target of at least two full deep combs (~40–50 lb gross)
• Hive #3 warning Score: 74/100
  📋 Overall Health

  Your Hive #3 is averaging 95.3°F (35.2°C) — the warmest brood temperature in the apiary and comfortably inside the ideal 93–97°F (34–36°C) band — with a tight 1.7°F (0.9°C) daily swing and the strongest acoustic output in the apiary: all 10 spectral bands sit 7–9 dB above Hive #3's own all-time baseline with the dominant energy in the 260–350 Hz colony fundamental, and the 14-day rising acoustic trend of +6.1 dBFS is consistent with active syrup-processing; your logs confirm continued daily 1-gallon feeder top-ups (~17 lb sugar since October 5, the highest in the apiary). Humidity averaged 36.1% (24h range 34.3–39.3%), continuing below the 40% larval-desiccation watch threshold driven by dry October air and the sustained ventilation effort of this highly active colony — this persisting humidity watch from the previous report and unconfirmed stores are the two items to address this week.

  🌅 Diurnal Cycle Patterns

  Temperature holds 94.7–96.4°F (34.8–35.8°C) across 24 hours with a 1.7°F (1.0°C) daily amplitude; vibration shows the most energetic daily rhythm in the apiary — 12 of 15 days with peaks averaging 2.0× baseline (19.4→37.7 mG), dominant rhythm band shifting from 50–80 Hz to 160–200 Hz in the second half of the window, suggesting a growing contribution from fanning/ventilation activity near the 160–200 Hz band (collective fanning hum ~190 Hz). The gas heater-scan has elevated the 100°C step by +22% and 150°C by +17% over the window — heavy low-temperature volatiles are rising, consistent with high fanning concentrating syrup-processing VOCs; the 1500–3600 Hz acoustic rhythm is strengthening (10.0→13.1 dB daily amplitude), a pattern shared with Hive #1 and suggesting brisk activity cycling.

  🔬 Correlations & Discoveries

  sound_energy vs temperature (14d) | r = +0.76

  Hive #3 carries the strongest sound-temperature partial correlation in the apiary (r=+0.76, controlling for outdoor weather), meaning its acoustic output and brood-nest heat track each other more tightly than any neighbour — consistent with a high-density colony where a large heater-bee workforce simultaneously drives both thermogenesis and acoustic output; the fanning-band vibration shift toward 160–200 Hz and the rising 1500–3600 Hz acoustic rhythm amplitude reinforce a picture of vigorous, well-integrated colony activity (Stabentheiner et al. 2010; Peters et al. 2019).

  📚 Reference: Peters et al. 2019, J. R. Soc. Interface 16:20180561, Stabentheiner et al. 2010, PLoS ONE 5(1):e8967, Human et al. 2006, Naturwissenschaften 93:397
  ⚠️ Issue: In-hive humidity averaging 36.1% (24h range 34.3–39.3%) — persistently below the 40% larval-desiccation watch threshold for a fifth consecutive day; driven by dry October outdoor air and sustained ventilation from this highly active colony; monitor closely

  ⚠️ Issue: Stores unconfirmed — this hive carries the highest metabolic demand and syrup consumption in the apiary (~17 lb since October 5), but a warm brood core confirms activity, not reserves; telemetry cannot see the stores

  ▹ Action: Heft Hive #3 this week — it carries the highest metabolic demand in the apiary and has consumed the most syrup, but a warm brood core confirms activity, not reserves

  ▹ Action: Monitor in-hive humidity: if the 24h low stays consistently below 37% over the next few days, consider whether the screened floor tray can be partially closed to retain moisture — confirm stores are adequate at heft first

  ▹ Action: Continue daily 1:1 feeder top-ups; if daytime highs drop consistently below 50°F (10°C), switch to fondant or a sugar brick placed directly over the cluster — 1:1 syrup cannot be cured in the cold

  ▹ Action: If light at heft, feed by weight toward a stores target of at least two full deep combs (~40–50 lb gross); pair any continued pollen patty with ample sugar to avoid deepening the carbohydrate deficit in this high-demand brood nest