For anybody interested the reason behind that is that if you move bees within their foraging distance they will return to where they used to live once they have been out foraging. If you watch bees on a flow they just fly out straight, no orienting. On their way back they will pick out known landmarks and fly “home”
If you move them out of their home distance they will orient on their new position and all will be well. The distances are not set in stone.Geographical features ( hill, forests) will shorten this distance.
You can however move a hive more than three feet within the apiary if you have a colony next to the one you are moving. The “lost” bees will simply beg entry into this box. You will, though lose all the foragers from the first hive.
We have a big suburban yard, almost a half acre. Over the years we have moved the hives from one location to another without issue. They seem to figure it out. So that indicates that under the right circumstances the bees deal with up to 30 yards.
30 yards might be a bit far for the bees, but like you say, they eventually figure it out. I like to move a hive backwards in small increments, as opposed to sideways in small increments. That way the entrance is in line with where it used to be. They just have to fly a bit further to reach it… Oh, I think calamari is 30 seconds or 3 hours, something like that.
