Mike Griggs posted: (along with some other good insight)
    There is a trade off here.   A wrapped hive that has broken cluster
early & stays active longer will need more stores to maintain this
level of activity.  It will probably need fall & spring feed with
extender patties (spring) too boot.   The advantage is that one will
have early bees for an early flow or many early bees for more or larger
splits.
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Very little has been said about wind chill and evaporation through the
wooden walls of an unwrapped hive. This I am quite confident is an important
factor.
    I have noticed that wrapped colonies do not consume as much stores as
the unwrapped until of course they start raising brood and as you say they
start earlier and build faster. Here is where insulation really enters the
picture. This is the time they must generate enormus amounts of heat,
relative to the clustered colony. They are now becoming space heaters so the
R value is definately important.

Alden Marshall
B-Line Apiaries
Hudson, NH  03051

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