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.


By the very nature of natural cavities,  most have a top entrance.  A dead
branch allows water intrusion which as it pools rots away the wood.
Obviously not all,  but the majority I see,  we also don't have a lot of
great information on wild hive survival and the reason they did not live.
   
Having played with insulation and sheltered storage a lot here in my area  I
am real sure inadequate ventilation is an issue for me when a hive is closed
to tight.  Its very obvious when you pull open a wet rotten moldy deadout,
compared to the dried out ones that failed for other reasons.

The extra thermal mass of a tree may also help stabilize the temperature and
humidity of the chamber by even pulling moisture out, although most cavities
are completely covered in propolis.   I have no clue how that effects
humidity.



Charles 

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