Dragin.

Some years ago, Mrs TD gave me this ornament cast, presumably, in cement. We were visiting in-laws at the time and my brother-in-law expressed surprise that I liked it. I was rather stuck for a blip today and this was at hand, not exactly a great photograph, I should have paid more attention to the lighting.

I was rushing around feeding bees this afternoon, I was amazed to see that those in the garden were taking in pollen. They had replaced the old queen with the new one emerging on the eighteenth of October; long after I thought all the drones had been disposed of; worker bees are cruel bastards. The significance of the pollen is that it is only gathered when there's brood to feed so the young lady did manage to find a few drones after all. I have hurriedly made up some medicine to kill the varroa otherwise the young bees will not survive. The colony was given to me but has a heavy infestation which will give them all the viral diseases there are going. I would like to check that there is no pupating brood in the hive as the treatment doesn't penetrate wax cells and so would not have any effect. The colony now has a very small chance of surviving the winter.