So, Saturday was an OK day to go out and check my 2 colonies that I had united. As per the unsual method for uniting, (which I understand is a good one), I had taken a very weak colony and placed it above a stronger with newspaper inbetween, with some slits. This has been in place for a couple of weeks because of such bad weather. The bees had all moved down to the lower chamber, so I removed the upper one and the newspaper. What I saw was not good and today looks like we may have quite a bit of sunshine. The storm that was called for yesterday never arrived, some wind in the morning but by afternoon, many breaks in the sky with sun shining just before the sun went down, which is about 4:30 PM. Anyways in the bottom chamber, I would say there is probably no more than 3 frames of bees, tops, the end frame of honey had mould on the bottom half and fair amount of mould on the bottomboard. I have not yet converted to screened bottomboards. This is something that I am looking into for the forthcoming season. I would presume that this colony is still pretty weak even after uniting, and there are not enough bees to keep this box warm and dry. So...any suggestions, should I contract the box making it smaller, give a clean bottomboard, or even perhaps take this colony now and unite it with one that I know for sure is strong. I have 4 others that I peeked into and they are doing pretty good I would say. Saturday was a warm enough day that bees were out on flights. I actually saw some coming in with pollen. I have no idea where they would get pollen from right now, but they found some. I guess I just don't see everything around here (LOL). I saw the queen in this colony walking around on a frame, so I know that she is there. I presume that she is not laying now, taking her little break for the winter so I did not even bother to see if there were any eggs. In our area, the queen evidently begins to lay again in January. Is this the case in most places that have a winter downtime? I still consider myself a newcomer to the bee world, so these things are intereting to me. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Cindi