Me, I find generally speaking, my gals do far better on their own than with me attempting to ultra manage anything "I" want them to do and whenever "I" want them to do it. Here, SW WA, my bees do according to the seasons, and are simply far better at doing when they should. For instance last year, prior to the 5 month dearth which began mid May, many of my hives had backfilled their upper deeps with the winter crowns by mid may. No way I had any knowledge that would happen in an area where we typically get a blackberry flow in June, but didn't due to the dearth of 2018. And yes, I even added supers to get the non-existent blackberry flow.
Hives too distant for me to micromanage, I often find them better off than those I do micromanage.
But at the same time, I am keeping bees because of my compulsive beekeeping addiction, not for the purpose of making money from pollinating or honey harvesting. The 24 gallons of honey this year was just as much a bother as it was a benefit to me. I'm just in it for the putzing. But for a beek (ie. "not" me) wanting to send bees to the almonds from here, it essentially requires one to be feeding both pollen sub and sugar water, at a time when un-managed hives or feral hives are reducing down their brood chambers, (and in my hives now, there is near no brood, not what one wants for almonds).
My major manipulation in late winter/early spring, when I do not reverse the 2 deeps, but add the excluder directly above the brood chamber and supers above that.
And in the summer/fall, entrance reducers go on during the robbing/YJ season. And if my hives do not defend/protect themselves, "oh well, didn't need them genes in my apiary anyway" Ain't my job to do all in my power to protect from robbers. And when bearding begins in spring, that is my sign to remove the reducers.
Hive management?: Just depends! What exactly are you striving for with your hives? Can/will they do it better without you, or do you need to intervene to pull it off?
If ya want a good nectar flow brought in, ya may just need to help your bees get built up in the spring prior to the flow by feeding sugar water and pollen sub, and here, during a time when spring weather is wet and cold and restrictive to bees going out in it.
Are your bees your animal husbandry force, managed by you, or are they just some feral critters you happened to have supplied a house for, and are to be left alone?