I hope I didn't stir things up. Not my intention. I was just adding my $0.02. :-X
I am a white Canadian born in Montreal who lived in Botswana Africa for 8 years during my youth. Interestingly, it took until now, almost 30 years later, to find out that in Botswana they keep bees in TBH's they call "Honey Cows". Traditionally, cattle equals wealth. So culturally the bee hives were the beekeepers' wealth, their cows. Plus, with four legs and a body already, add a head and a tail in your mind's eye, and they look a bit like cows. :)
My first exposure to beekeeping was in Botswana. An Indian friend of mine (from India) found a hive in the ground. We smoked it with burned dung (his idea) fanned into the hole with sheets of cardboard. We dug it out, found the queen, put her in a match box with holes, put that in a cardboard box along with all the comb, and waited 30 minutes until most of the bees were in the box. Still a lot flying around though. Then we walked it home - a swarm with two kids at its heart. Hehe! The looks we got! As I recall he kept them in that cardboard box for the first year - tied the comb onto square sticks, and turned it into a mini TBH.
I'm guessing there must be at least two different types of bees there. Not sure, but we dug out those bees and he kept them no problem. That doesn't sound like our friends the Africanized Honey Bees. a year or so later, though, some kids at a nearby village saw some bees going in and out of a small hole in a tree and threw some rocks at it. Apparently the tree was hollow, and rather full. The bees boiled out of the tree and attacked the kids and whatever else was nearby. Adults pulled the kids to safety, and after a hospital stay they recovered. A donkey tied nearby was killed. I'm thinking either my friend was more knowledgeable than I gave him credit for, or else we just got lucky.
Anyhow, that might explain why I just got into beekeeping two years ago. :)
Cheers all.
Grid.