I can't stop thinking about feral bees in this context. From pictures of  
bee trees (Tom Seeley's books have plenty of them) you can see that the  
size of the openings varies, yet feral bees are doing fine. Thermal  
properties of inches of wood surrounding their cavities are miles ahead of  
the thin wood of Langstroth hives and a single entrance makes one wonder  
about all this talk about humidity.

I've mentioned a few times here the much thicker construction for hives  
used in Poland (so-called Warsaw hives), which has moderate climate like  
New England and Midwest - they have only one, bottom entrance.

I wrap my hives in the insulated plastic (bee cozies), but use the inner  
covers from Brushy Mountain which come with a small notch. I'm waiting for  
an opportunity to switch at least some of my hives to Lyson polyester  
hives, because dealing with the wraps is getting cumbersome and after 2-3  
seasons they have to be replaced and ain't cheap.

Przemek

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