This is the earliest mention of mid-winter brood-rearing I have seen, from 1790:

Now, to ascertain the matter with sufficient accuracy, I determined to sacrifice three hives every year, one strong, and two moderate ones. Accordingly, on the first of February, I suffocated a strong hive, after Thornley's method ; and when I took out the combs, it surprised me much to find an abundance of brood : the eggs and maggots were innumerable, and many were next to emerging from their cells.  

It was then obvious to me, that the queen had begun to lay her eggs in the early part of January ; and this appeared the more extraordinary, as the month of January had been very cold, from severe frosts and snow ; and it was evidently too sharp for a Bee to stir abroad. 

This circumstance refutes the general received opinion, that the queen never begins breeding till the weather proves mild, and you see Bees carrying to their hives, the little balls of farina on their legs : but to investigate the matter more fully, there appeared in the combs, vast quantities of farina ; and what was very curious, some os it seemed covered with a kind of varnish substance, in order to exclude the air from it ; besides, on the top of the hive, there was a considerable quantity of water, apparently collected there from the fame cause that it does on a window, where a room is hot, and the external air very cold. The foregoing consideration clears up a point that has puzzled many authors; I mean, the laying up such quantities of farina : White, and some others, suppose it to be real food, mixed with honey, for the old Bees.

in: 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY F0R THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF 
Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. 
London. Printed by T. Spilsbury and Son, Snow-hill.

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