A few differences in management. But a caveat too. Since I am new to and just learning about mellifera, some of this may not be a difference.
Apis Cerana are wont to abscond. This means limiting inspections. I open my hives only a few times a year – for Spring a cleaning, about once a month during summer, for a fall harvest & cleaning, and a winter feeding. When I harvest, about 50% of the time they will nearly-abscond. That is the workers will all depart the entrance and gather somewhere on the outside. If the queen has also left, find her and put her back. To know if she has left, inspect the gathering for shape, and if symmetrical she is out, but if it looks like massive bearding you are probably OK to ignore it. Generally I will scoop globs of bees with my hands and shake them off at the entrance and then observe if they enter or not.
You don't smoke them – as they will only get angry. If you want them to move, you breath on them – or tap with a hive tool, and they will move down into the hive and off of the frame that you are handling. Do this too much and they will abscond.
Cerana do not get diseases – so no medications of any sort in the hive. I only use a chemical outside of the hive to ward off ants.
When they swarm – it will be to the same spot in the apiary. This means that you can place a swarm-catcher, attached to a rope, and easily catch swarms for re-hiving. I use a 1/2 box, cut on the diagonal such that it looks like an A-frame. The inside is lined with the bark of cherry trees and has a small cherry branch in the top for them to attach to. I lower the box with the swarm and jolt the bees free – directly into a new hive.
They prefer logs to box hives. Their comb is long and narrow, so if you harvest you generally need to re-frame the lower portion as it contains the brood. In a log, I drill from the outside and run a skewer thru the log and brood comb that I am reattaching.
They are smaller and produce less honey – so less work in harvest (and unfortunately, less honey for me when I do harvest). Their honey is runny – even the capped stuff, though I am unsure of the water percentage. Since you only harvest once (or twice if very lucky), the honey by definition is multi-floral.
One reason their honey is runny, is that they fan at the entrance with their butt to the entrance (not their head) - pushing humid air into the hive. Hence a top vent is very important to allow humidity to escape. You always tilt the bottom board slightly down toward the entrance to allow for condensed water to run out.
Cerana do better with forage in totally forested areas than do Mellifera, so you have more apiary placement options.
Frames hang 90 degrees to the opening, not parallel to it.
Since your bees are fewer, and you do not want uncovered comb available for wax moths, you use a hive reducer (a solid board that hangs like a frame does) in front of and in back of the bee-covered frames to define the hive area within the hive box. You move these as you add frames. During buildup, adding two frames during a the Spring/summer inspection does it. That is, they are slower to build out comb or put to use empty comb.
You don't use supers (well I do on a very strong hive, but I only know of a couple of us that do so.) If you use a super, you move a frame with greater than 50% capped honey from the hive into the top box (your super - which is the same size as your original hive since it must take the frame from the hive body). You do not place empty comb on top and expect that they will use it. You can place empty comb, or even foundation in the lower box as a replacement. If you add a frame to the hive body, you place it second from front, or second from back (or both at the same time).
Cerana do not produce a detectable amount of propolis – so no sticky messes.
