> winter diutinus bees, which are normally produced during time of relative resource abundance, due to the presence of copious beebread from fall pollen flows--refer to Mattila and Otis' studies.

But they are the ones who got me thinking along these lines. Mattila and Otis wrote:

We determined the effects of manipulating pollen supply during the fall on the number of winter bees present in colonies by spring, their mass and protein content before and after winter, and their capacity to rear brood during the spring. Colonies were either supplemented with or partially deprived of pollen during the fall, while a third group of colonies was not manipulated (control). 

We found that the performance of winter bees was not enhanced by supplementing colonies with pollen in the fall, nor did worker function suffer if pollen supply was restricted. Similar numbers of winter bees survived to spring in colonies and workers had similar physiology and brood-rearing efficiencies. These results suggest that beekeepers would not benefit by investing in fall pollen supplements to maximize colony growth in early spring.

If beekeepers feed pollen to colonies during the fall, then they will only artificially delay the production of the population of winter bees, and they are unlikely to improve the survival or spring nursing capacity of those workers that do winter.

Mattila, H. R., & Otis, G. W. (2007). Manipulating pollen supply in honey bee colonies during the fall does not affect the performance of winter bees. The Canadian Entomologist, 139(04), 554-563.

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