I looked into Hive B a few days ago and found no brood and no Queen. The colony is quite small so she probably wasn't hiding.

Is there a virgin Queen waiting to take over? That would be reasonable following the supersedure which I saw in progress at the start of the month. I will have to look again to see whether brood returns. What happens if the colony is unable to create a new Queen? I'm unsure.

The bees were angry today. They attacked. They followed. They found the gaps around my shoes and stung my feet. They stung through my gloves. They were cross.

Hungry bees are angry bees. The bees are hungry so I'm feeding them.

There may be other reasons for them being so defensive.

I see the following alert from the Nation Bee Unit (part of Defra)