I'll let you work this one out.
3 miles or 3 feet.
Beginning to think this is not giving the full story by a long way.
Small apiary site came out of winter with 1 drone layer and a hive with no queen. So all old winter bees that had been in that site for over 7 months.
Decided to bleed bees off into 2 new hives placed in their original position.
Moved the drone layers hives hives about 6 feet away and entrances 180 degrees to previous..
4 days later....some had relocated ( increase in bee numbers in "new hives"), yet the majority hadn't....they had reoriented to their new site and where bringing in pollen and nectar.
According to "beekeeping lore"...these where all old bees that should have gone back to original site and been absorbed into the new hives...yet they weren't.
Feel free to discuss.