I had my first job in a bee yard when I was 14 in 1950. No suit, no veil, no smoker just gentle bees.
I started keeping bees again after many years without them and have found that the old ways don't work.
So I Did the Best Management Practices here in SW Florida. What a disaster. Wasted money on packages with dead queens, non laying queens and deadouts in 4 months.
Went to ferals from cutouts and had to change methods and equipment to get them to survive. I did not always succeed with them either. Just about all ferals have some African in them and they will abscond at the slightest disturbance. But they are survivors and they can be gentle. Since I found out how to control SHB I have been able to keep the bees in the box a lot better.
Some of the things I do different can be found at
http://www.poorboybees.com/presentation.htmledit: repaired link Buzzbee