Hi Vance,
It has been warm here too - near 60F today. I am fighting the urge to peak into a couple of hives. It is always better to leave them alone for as long as you can. I would like to see some moisture, but if the cold can stay away, we might have a nice, and more importantly, early spring.
As for queen rearing and drones - around here, you can have drones early, but you don't want your queen to breed with them - they are from the commercial hives, so generally they are Italians with a healthy mix of Africanized genes. That is the biggest reason that I don't bother intentionally raising queens. You just can't get away from them - the commercial hives are everywhere. By the time any hives that I would want genetics from start throwing drones, it is so late in the year that I can't really use them.