Flooded beehives cleanup advice

[Antipodes]

Some images of the hives after the water surge had passed just to give you an idea of the power of the water. Some if them ended 4/5 ft up the earth bank which is the maximum height the water reached. It's a wonder all but two survived really. My hives are the first two images. The fourth image shows the large pile of wood on the left which hit all the hives.

Beekeeping is hard enough as it is, without this sort of thing happening

 

[pargyle]

Some images of the hives after the water surge had passed just to give you an idea of the power of the water. Some if them ended 4/5 ft up the earth bank which is the maximum height the water reached. It's a wonder all but two survived really. My hives are the first two images. The fourth image shows the large pile of wood on the left which hit all the hives.

When you see photos like that it's a miracle that any of them survived ! I would agree with you ..down here in the South I think there are very few totally broodless periods .. the small areas of brood you see are just maintenance .. if they need bees and they can feed and keep the brood warm they will encourage the queen to lay - the fact that they were capped is a firm indication that they were able to rear the brood ... I often think the bees know more about keeping bees than we do !