Michael,
We usually work the bees very early in the morning or late afternoon.  The bees are selected to be docile and we don't use any protective equipment and just take off supers with a blower and wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Sometimes it's better to wear a veil just to keep the sun off the face.  During the summer anyway there is not much to do with the bees as the flows are mostly over and we just remove the crop at our leisure.  When it's too hot off course we just stay at home and do other jobs in the air-conditioning - or go on holiday!
For the actual care of the bees we have found that two things are very important:
1. That there be a supply of water near the bees - in some areas there isn't any standing water at all and we have to take barrels of water to the bees, an apiary of 24 hives can get through a barrel of 130 litres in a week.
2. The roof tops of the hives must be painted white - gloss white- we did some tests and found the unpainted vs. painted can mean a difference of up to 20c. in the feeder under the roof.  This could mean the difference between life and death for the colony in very hot weather.

Best regards
Roger White
Superbee Cyprus.