White Feather.

I went to see the bees but didn't really have much time so only checked three colonies. One I was pretty sure it was queenless which it confirmed by waging all out war on me as soon as I came into view. Bees do tend to be grumpy this time of the year, they have their winter larder to protect and their brood is rather special; instead of only living for a few weeks, they have significantly more body fat to provide them with energy for the cold weather and live for six months, consequently, without lots of young bees at this time of the year, they are doomed. On the other hand, a colony without a queen has neither stores nor brood to defend but has belligerence aplenty. This particular colony hasn't produced any brood since I took an artificial swarm off it, so either the new queen didn't mate for some reason or she was predated and didn't return from her mating flight. It's something that's happened twice this year although I've only known it happen to my bees once previously. It's sufficiently rare for me to think that I'm missing something, other than a queen, that is.

Of the other two colonies, one is getting ready for Christmas a bit early by storing honey in the brood box to the extent that there is little room for brood, while the other is approaching starving because it's raising more brood than it can support. The immediate solution was to take a frame of honey from the one and give it to the other; tomorrow I will unite the hungry one with the queenless one which should resolve both their problems..

I wonder what surprises the other three will throw at me.

The feather was, conveniently, floating on the pond which now has a few inches of water in it having been dry for a couple of months.