> If I move the parent hive and the three splits all 30 feet away from the original spot, will this lessen the effects of drift? I know Mike bush says 1 inch or 2 miles no diff
Well, 1 mile might make little difference, but anything over that would. Under that, they will fly back to the original location if they know it (all the field bees know it) and so you will have drift. If you want to mitigate drift for a split, then there needs to be NO hive at the old location. Then they choose based on other criteria. They will tend to drift into the nearest hive to the old location that is facing the same direction.
> but I don't believe I have read anything about moving them all minimal distances.
Mine are usually touching the original hive. I just shake in extra bees or I don't worry about drift at all. Or swap places in a few days to equalize things a bit. Just don't do it 12 to 20 days later when a new queen is likely to be mating...