As suggested I broke up my straight line of hives to 3 hives and 50' away 2 hives. Took what seemed to be the strongest of the hives, and set it next to a hive that seemd weeker as the pair set aside. I set the stronger hive up wind of the weeker hoping that any drifting that took place would benefit the weeker hive. The 3 remaining hives I set in more of a semi circle configuration, and slid them further appart. I also added syrup, and checked frames. I did add another frame of foundation which was a snug fit, but they were building burr comb, and I wanted to keep that to a minimum. I took one comb out that was about 4"x 6" beautiful white wax. All bees seemed to be active.
I did this on Friday afternoon/evening thinking that the cold rainy Saturday would keep them in, and give them a day or so to settle to their new locations. Sunday afternoon was breazy, but the sun finally broke and the bees came out. The down wind hive of the three hives the spot where I removed the strongest hive had a bunch of bees flying in front of it. The other two that were located at the origional spot also had active bees in front. The two hives that I moved had very little activity, and it seemed to me that bees were only flying out, and very few were returning. The weeker of the two seemd to have very little activity at all. I did slide the top off, and there seemed to be plenty of bees around the whole in the inner cover. I didn not take the inner cover off I did not want to make things worse by disturbing them. All bees bees were installed from pkg. 7-14.
My hope is that the two hives that got moved didn't appreciate being jiggled, and that they will pick up in activity over the next couple of days. My question is when hives are moved how much disruption is caused, and what kind of reaction should I expect.