There is a rule in moving a beehive. Less than 3 feet or more than 2 miles. Bees don't have GPS, instead the rely on navigating based on navigational markers in their flight path.
I HAD to move my hive. It is growing and will need another box on top this week and where they are is not an easy place to do this. So, tonight I tried one of the move techniques. They got moved perhaps 80' from the original location. The move went well until some of the guard bees got airborne. I stuffed grass in the entrance and they will have to dig through it in the morning. This triggers the rehoming sequence to a degree. I also leaned a 2x4 against the hive near the opening to also trigger the rehoming instinct. Likely, we will have a lot of bees at the old location. When they realize that the hive is not there, they will start flying around looking for it. Late tomorrow, I will put a hive base and empty box at the old location and then move it overnight to the new location.
Part of learning on my part. But the hope is that they mostly make it back and continue being a happy growing hive.
Tonight??? Not so happy. A handful of guard bees got airborne and bumped me in attempts to "defend the hive". No stings bu there was John running the yard swatting at potential stinging bugs...