I moved 3 hives recently, about 20 ft.  I moved them with warm enough weather that disturbing the cluster would not be fatal, but not so warm that they were flying daily.  One hive had been facing north and had a large bush to the west; the other 2 were facing south with a fence to their west.  All 3 were moved about side-by-side, facing south, new windbreaks, and branches in front of the hive entrance.

The hive that had been by the bush had few foragers returning to the old location - maybe 20.  And just for 1 day.  I'd call that a successful move, and looks like changing the "viewscape" for a departing forager helps trigger them to re-orient, and to quickly decide the old location is bust and to find just anywhere to go.

The hives that had were moved, but still facing the same direction, still had foragers returning to the old location - I had left 2 deadouts there, and the windbreak was still up.  It still looked pretty similar, and those hives were facing the same direction too... About 40-100 foragers (not a ton, but the hives are nuc sized) were lost to chilling one day when they landed on the deadouts.  Leaving the hives there and the windbreak up was probably too many cues in common between the old location to trigger the bees to give up and find any hive.  Having the new location face the old location, and have the old location in sight, and having it look similar to before the move - well, a bad move on my part.

They recovered though.  Still flyin'.  Hope this helps with moving hives with minimal inconvenience to the beekeeper and the bees!

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