Recently I went and captured a swarm. During the extraction process, a fair amount of dirt, leaves and twigs fell into the box. I moved the bees into a clean box, and tipped them all out of the messy one. Pecuilarly, they weren't eager to move into the new hive. I thought the bees were supposed to all follow after their queen, but instead, they gathered into clusters where ever they happened to be placed. There were about five clusters of bees, all piled on each other.
I tried to retrieve my cloth which I used in the extraction, and there were numerous bees on it that were particularly passive and immobile. I eventually thought that perhaps they needed honey for some energy, so I gathered half a dozen jar lids and filled them with honey, and put it near the bee clusters. Wanting to motivate them to move under shelter, I got a branch and put a tarp over it, and placed most of the honey underneath. They ate the honey fairly fast, but many bees stayed on top of the tarp and were rained on. I also poured honey into their hive, to encourage them to go into it, which was unsuccessful. Realising that the bees weren't going to move, I picked up the bees that I could and put them in the hive, and did my best to provide shelter for the less mobile ones. A few days later, many of the bees died, including all the bees in the old box with the dirt.
I don't know why they died. I think I must have done something wrong, but I'm really not sure what. I estimate I've lost 60% of the bees. Any idea on why this happened? Should have I provided the bees with sugar/honey as soon as I collected them? Should have I left them in the box with all the dirt in it? Could it be that the queen died, which is the reason the bees didn't follow after her?
