One must remember or take into consideration that those like Mikel Palmer have thousands of hives.
Foam board insulation costs would necessarily be UMUGAS, and therefore valid for his situation.
For me I could ill afford to loose even one hive due to cold or wetness inside.
A new Queen is what $100.00
Mikel Palmer would raise his own queens with his own resources, thousands of hives, human workers, and other considerations I could not name.
Yes bee tree have larger openings and sometimes multiple openings. One must concider a bee tree
would necessarily have many multiples of the 3/4 inches of a man made hive, the difference is 3,4,5,6
inches of wood when compared what we have shoved them into.
Are we now God's by our own actions?
jay