In just 20 minutes it deja vu all over again!

This perennial topic (moving bees while closed up for winter) has been asked
again and answered twice.  One answer was move 'em (but leave a catcher
hive), one answer was don't move 'em (follow the under 3 feet or over 3
miles rule of thumb or is it a myth?)  I suppose if I wait a few minutes
more someone will post the maybe yes, maybe no middle of the road.

Truth is, there's tons of stuff on this topic in the archives which can be
searched at:
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l
Allen wrote a particularly informative reply to the question.

My advice?  Move 'em and see what happens.  Move 'em while they're couped up
due to the weather.  Place something directly in the bees flight path so
they are surprised immediately that something has changed when they come out
on the first warm day.  Chances are they'll reorient to the new location.
If they don't, then be ready to move 'em back or set up a catcher hive to
catch the ones (if any) that do return to the old location.

Follow my advice and you'll learn what your bees do in your location this
time.  Any your results may vary the next time.  But you'll learn from the
experience and perhaps discover that the bees don't always do things by the
book.

Aaron Morris - thinking bees CAN read, but the'll see red as black and the
pages will look funny!