It is a matter of providing a way for the bees to do what they have been doing for longer than man’s creation. Wherever they are kept they need an environment that is suitable for their existence. Bee behavior and biology are essential to learn for a beekeeper to provide what bees need to exist year around. It would also help to learn what their natural environment is supposed to be so they can live as they where created to live and survive. I suggest to everyone that wants to learn to keep bees similar to how I do to visit this link at my web site;
http://alaskahoneybee.com/bee-links-and-resources/bee-basics/

After a study of Mike’s site you may have specific questions on details of wintering in your location. Please post your thoughts and questions latter so we can all learn more. What I am doing may not work best for your location. You may need to tweak management to suit your location or circumstances.

Old rule of thumb, keep no less than two colonies in any one location. One colony lacks resources if things go wrong, with two or more in one location problems can be remedied with resources from a colony very close by. Another benefit to keeping two or more colonies in any location is so a beekeeper can compare activity at the entrance so a person can make decision as whether to enter a colony or not. There are other reasons, these are only two reasons.

Here is what most likely happened, especially from very strong colonies, of which can cast swarms and still bring in honey for taking while still having stores to winter on. The bees can keep a newly hatched queen from destroying all the swarm cells from the prime swarm, and just before those left over swarm cells hatch the newly hatched queen from the prime swarm leaves with a after swarm. These after swarms are usually smaller than the Prime, and has a virgin queen that will need mated, as it takes 9 to 12 days for a newly hatched queen to mature for mating. An after swarm happens before this 9 to 12 day maturation period. Be sure to leave the after swarm alone for about 10 to 14 days to give the queen enough time to mate and begin laying.

It is my believe that queens produced under the swarming impulse to be superior as they are intentionally produced by the bees from the very beginning to be a queen, unlike commercially produced queens which are produced under the emergency queen impulse, where a larvae 12 to 24 hours is used by the bees to produce a replacement queen. They are not fed from the beginning to be a queen, but a worker instead. Swarm queen are fed lavishly from the very beginning to be a queen, producing a queen that is very healthy, strong, and most likely long lived. Only the fastest and strongest drones can catch her, ensuring Strong and prolific workers. A good ingredient for wintering bees.

I recommend to work with unmarked queens for reasons that benefit the colony and the beekeeper. As I am beekeeper who chooses to not put any thing in a hive that the bees will not bring in on it’s own. Paint or any substance used to mark queens are something bees will not bring into their home. Tar has been known to be brought into the hive, but it is to dark to be marking queens with as the queens thorax is very dark. Just kidding, I would never think of actually using tar to mark a queen. If I were highly concerned about keeping complete track of queens, I would use a glue on number system.

As I am looking for a queen, (Kind of like “Looking for Waldo” as in “Where’s Waldo” the game, unless the queen is the same color as the comb they are on, she will kind of stick out like a sore thumb.) I also look for eggs. Sometimes she is near where lots of eggs are laid. Another thing I do while looking is from the outside in to the middle of the comb I look in a spiral motion, and then back to the edges of the comb. Most time the queen is larger than workers, but rare occasions she can be small. Remember the queen has a bald thorax, unlike drones and workers where they have a little fur. The queen does not have the same markings as the workers and has a thinner abdomen than drones. Like Waldo, she is the odd ball, with practice she is mostly easy to find.

If a beekeeper relies on a marked queen he can overlook a new queen and think he has no queen when indeed there is a queen inside. In the mean time he might try to requeen unsuccessfully, wasting a good mated queen.

Sometimes there is no queen.

Beekeepers can be very unsure at times if there is a queen in the hive or not. In this situation a beekeeper can take from an adjacent colony a frame with open brood with eggs, and larvae of all stages,Preferable on not very old worker comb, and places this comb in the center of the colony in question of having a queen. Mark this comb for ID and check back in 5 days to see if emergency queen cells have been started. If queen cells are started they have no queen and decisions can can be made then as to how to proceed. If no queen cells present then they do indeed have a queen or something they recognize as a queen such as a laying worker.