Hi all
Excerpts from work that looked inside the colonies during winter, carried out in northern Scotland. 

In 367 examinations of healthy honeybee colonies during each of the
months September to March inclusive, conducted over 7 years, the quantities
of brood present and the quantities of pollen in the combs were
determined. The brood minimum occurred in October, when brood
was present in only 14% of colonies, while throughout the period of
wintering the quantity of pollen per colony averaged only 3 oz. It is
suggested that bees may have come to winter practically without protein
as a result of natural selection.

The figures in Table 1 show that at Aberdeen the quantity of brood
in the months when bees are wintering drops to a minimum in October
and November. In October only one in seven of the colonies examined
had brood. In November the ratio had risen to one in four, and in
December and January brood was present at half of the examinations.

The actual quantities of brood present were almost always very small
compared with summer levels (the latter often amounting to 1,000 sq,
ins.), and the frequency of appearance tended to increase from October
onwards. ... 

These results coincide fairly closely with
Wedmore's idea of a period of quiescence followed by brood-rearing
as soon as colder conditions set in; but nevertheless attempts in this
laboratory to correlate the amount of brood in individual winter 
months with temperature fluctuations have not so far been successful.

JEFFREE, B. (1956) WINTER BROOD AND POLLEN IN HONEYBEE COLONIES
INSECTES SOCIAUX, TOME III, No. 3

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