I found this video online where Michael Bush talks about raising queens. It is a very nice tutorial for the beginner who wants to raise queens, and talks about the advantages of making your own.
Michael doesn’t really address the situation we have here. We don’t have feral, acclimated bees. In order to improve the queens we want to raise means having sterile mating ranges, which could increase the chances of inbreeding. That isn’t a problem in most of the places people keep bees in Alaska… but if you want an Alaskan bee, you need to have sterile mating ranges.