I got a bee bonus this week. I had two hives on my place. One is my own Kenya top bar hive that is now in its second spring and fully populated. Later in the year, I'll rob it of enough honey for our use and leave them plenty to get through the winter. Next spring, I may have to bring in another hive and split the colony between them. (If they get two cramped, half of them may swarm and go looking for a new place.)
The bonus: I used to have an old establish hive in an ancient oak tree beside the house. Last year, they vanished. I found no unusual number of dead, so I think they either swarmed or may have been overrun by fire ants and fled. This week, a swarm from elsewhere arrived and formed a "beard" on the tree. After about fifteen minutes, the concluded that the old cavity in the tree was a good prospect and moved right in. I'll have to inspect around the base of the tree to see if the ants will give them trouble. Somehow, I doubt that was the problem. I get no honey from this bunch, but they are more than welcome. And I keep an empty conventional hive box mounted high on a shed wall, just in case a swarm comes by seeking a home. If I'd been home at the time, I could have moved the swarm into the empty hive. They're very gentle when they have no home to defend.
A small hive is a good match to a garden. Bees take little management, being, of course, able to survive well in the wild. "Store bought" bees are mostly bred from gentle Italian bees, and you can sit within three or four feet and watch the hive. I work my hive without any protection. (Except a hat. They can get in your hair when a bunch of them boil out of an open hive.) Urban bees often do very well, because there's always plenty in bloom within their 2-3 mile range.