A healthy hive will adjust to whatever house they have as a hive.
Barns, walls, trees, oil drums, old chests, the list is endless, even wooden and poly hive will do.
To keep the hive warm they need energy, when they consume sugar/syrup/honey under a long period there bowels fill up :-X. The more they have to work to keep the hive warm and if the winters are long the greater the risk that they will have a fatal accident and the hive will become full of crap :-X
Cleaning hives after this is one of the worst jobs as a beekeeper :-x
More insulation less feed consumption = healthier bees , and lower cost for feed for the beekeeper.
mvh edward :-P