Flooding

[BB King]

Our village suffered flooding from thunderstorms on Sunday and Monday, precipitation amounted to well over 4 ins in a few hours. One of my sites had been under water for about 12hrs and I have just been through all five hives which have all had water into the brood box and by the hide tide mark about a third of the brood was submerged.
I have cleaned the OM floors of debris, leaves and twigs and some dead larvae and had a quick check of a few brood frames in each box all seems ok with BIAS. This is my first experience of flooded hives, I’ve had this site for 10 years with no previous Issues but I’ve raised the hive stands as a precaution as the forecast looks very unsettled again this week
Anyone know how long eggs and larvae would survive submerged? I’m hoping capped brood should be ok.

 

[beeno]

Sorry to hear of your situation. No ideas on the issues you are facing, but I am sure someone has shortly.

 

[viridens]

Blimey. Climate change strikes again. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I have no idea about brood survival. The brood has been both chilled and deprived of air, as well as submerged. I would guess that anything uncapped will suffer, and I don't know how watertight cell caps would be when submerged for hours.

Please report back the outcome and add to the knowledge base.

 

[Pembroke]

Maybe someone at the National Bee Unit would know? Try contacting your local regional bee inspector to see if he / she has any ideas.

http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/Contacts/contacts.cfm

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

That’s really sad. I hope all is not lost.
Were they on single brood boxes or double? Double might be a good insurance policy!

 

[BB King]

That’s really sad. I hope all is not lost.
Were they on single brood boxes or double? Double might be a good insurance policy!

They look to be ok. 3 of the five were on 14 x 12 brood frames so not all of the brood was submerged. The adult bees look to have survived, all colonies are on OMF so the water would have gone as soon as the water level subsided. I was concerned about asphyxiation if they had been submerged for a prolonged period but I didn’t find any dead bees only dead larvae on the floor presumably cleaned out of the frames by the adults.
the consensus seems to be eggs and exposed larvae would perish and capped may survive unless chilled by the flood water, time will tell but they are mostly strong colonies and have time to compensate for losses. I am feeding the smallest colony to help it along and have cleaned all the flotsam out of the boxes and frames.

 

[Swarm]

I'd say anything below the water level has perished.

 

[pargyle]

I'd say anything below the water level has perished.

Yes .. I'd think that likely .. not from the point of view of water ingress.. more likely temperature. A beekeeper down here last year in the flooding actually rescued a couple of hives that were floating in the flood water ... the bees recovered and thrived. I'd suggest a bit of feeding might help them along - this rain looks to be persisting until the weekend. It has even been peeing down down here on tje Costa del Fareham. Pond full again and the water butts ... goes from the sahara to monsoon from day to day here !

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

I had a similar situation last year, fourteen hives were flooded on the OSR. I wish I could be positive but, none of the surviving colony's flourished, I suspect there was a lot of contaminates in the water from the local farms that were flooded as well.
I would place colony's in a clean brood box & remove as much comb as possible and replace with foundation and feed well.

Fingers crossed for you.

 

[Murox]

Sorry to hear of your troubles, do you have any form of insurance against flood losses ?- just for a change I haven't seen a drop for 3 days in a row up here.

 

[BB King]

Sorry to hear of your troubles, do you have any form of insurance against flood losses ?- just for a change I haven't seen a drop for 3 days in a row up here.

No flood insurance not traditionally a high risk in the dry East but may have to reconsider site locations as these events are looking to becoming more frequent.

 

[Murox]

No flood insurance not traditionally a high risk in the dry East but may have to reconsider site locations as these events are looking to becoming more frequent.

yes its a problem, I lived near K.Lynn for many years, what area are you in?

 

[Bear]

Had a site of mine flooded years ago but the water only went up about 1” on the bottom of the brood frames. If you think it’s going to happen again I suggest removing the queen excluder maybe adding a super or two and weigh the hive down. Maybe a 6” block or 2!! Few years ago my local association had a story in the newsletter that an aipery got flooded and a hive or 2 (polystyrene) floated away but by sheer luck landed on a flat river bank down stream and all was well. My flood was in November so no queen excluder and no eggs etc but the water was up over the floor / entrance. The bees moved up remember your queen won’t if the queen excluder is still on. I’d rather have supers with eggs than a hive with no queen.

 

[BB King]

yes its a problem, I lived near K.Lynn for many years, what area are you in?

Between Watton and Dereham

 

[Murox]

Between Watton and Dereham

Know the area well, I worked around Hingham for several years.