New sites and wintering bees

I've set up a new apiary near Leominster on an organic farm and will be moving hives in over the next couple of weeks. The sites south of Shropshire seem to carry colonies over the winter significantly better than here in the Shropshire hills. As a result we are putting most if not all our colonies in Herefordshire for wintering. Altitude also has an affect on wintering, we like to winter at 400' or less. Although there is a good deal of work involved in moving colonies it does pay off with a better spring build up.

I checked all the nucleus hives and re-queened those showing signs of poor mating using cells. The mating is improved this season, so I'm hoping to get a better wintering percentage, last year we lost 30% of colonies due to queen failure.