Everyone seems to feed their bees - even most of the low intervention bee keepers. I'm not convinced.

Bee keepers feed their bees for several reasons:

I just checked the nucleus which has the new swarm inside. Brood is present, so they're queen right. They've been busy collecting stores.

I hope to put them into a full sized brood box and then feed. I hope that they'll survive the winter that way.

My out-apiary is windy. It's up on a building and almost unshielded from the wind. The consequence is that returning bees get blown around when trying to land. The wind blows from the side, causing bees from Hives C and D to be blown across the fronts of their neighbours. I suppose that this increases the possibility of drift. I haven't seen it happening.

It's almost comical when I sit downwind of the 3 hives. I periodically get covered in a cloud of bees.