Floodwater tore through the apiary at Beauty and Bees Honey in Bellevue, wiping out most of the business's beehives and killing an estimated two million bees in a matter of hours. Owner Anna-Marie Mistanoglu, who has kept bees for more than a decade, says she isn't walking away from it now.
At least 90% of the bees at the Bellevue operation died in the flooding, according to KETV, which reported that about 35 hives were destroyed. A separate account from WOWT put the losses even higher, reporting more than 35 hives gone and only seven left standing on one side of the field more than two weeks after the water receded. Either way, the damage to the Bellevue beekeeping and honey business was severe: WOWT reports it will cost more than $25,000 to replace the bees, the woodware and the honey that was lost.
Making matters worse, Mistanoglu said her insurance company told her the bees themselves were not covered, per the same WOWT report. She told the station it's going to cost well over $25,000 just to replace everything that was destroyed.
Volunteers Wade In With a Boat
Help arrived fast. A volunteer with a boat showed up to assist the Bellevue business just days after the flooding, bringing what the Omaha World-Herald described as some much-needed good news to Mistanoglu and her team, according to Omaha.com. The boat run helped rescue surviving bees from hives that were otherwise stranded in standing water.
Members of the Omaha Bee Club also stepped up, with some volunteering to donate replacement bees come spring and others offering spare equipment, the outlet reported. In the meantime, the business planned to keep selling what honey it had left, along with its gelato, caramels, baklava and bread products, to get through the winter months.
A Broader Disaster Across Southeast Nebraska
The flooding that hit Beauty and Bees Honey was part of a much larger disaster across southeast Nebraska. Lincoln recorded 6.15 inches of rain in a single day, shattering the city's previous one-day record of 5.45 inches set back in 1910, according to Nebraska Public Media. The downpour triggered flash flooding and water rescues in both Omaha and Lincoln.
Damage assessments from the storms have now exceeded $23 million, and that figure could still climb, Nebraska Examiner reported. Gov. Jim Pillen has requested federal public assistance for eight counties hit by the flooding.
A Tough Year for Bees Beyond the Flood
The timing couldn't be worse for Nebraska's bee population. Beekeepers statewide lost around 10,000 hives last year, roughly 67% of commercial colonies, according to a survey cited by Nebraska Public Media. Normally, beekeepers expect to lose about 30% of their bees over a typical winter, but even experienced commercial operations have been seeing losses far beyond that this year, and experts told the outlet they haven't figured out why.
Nationally, honey bee colonies saw a 39.9% loss from April 2025 to April 2026, an improvement from the previous two years, when losses hit 55.1% and then a record 55.6%, according to Auburn University. Researchers point to a tangle of possible contributors, including parasites, viruses, poor nutrition, pesticide exposure, transportation stress and extreme weather, as reported by Fertilizer Daily.
It isn't the first time the industry has weathered something like this. The beekeeping world faced a similar reckoning during Colony Collapse Disorder in 2006 and 2007, a crisis that eventually eased without experts ever pinning down a definitive cause, Nebraska Public Media noted.
Rebuilding, One Hive at a Time
Despite the setback, Mistanoglu has made clear she isn't giving up beekeeping after more than a decade building the business, as 3 News Now reported in its look at the shop's recovery. Between the volunteers offering equipment, the Omaha Bee Club members pledging bees for spring, and the honey, gelato and baked goods still on the shelves, Beauty and Bees Honey had restocked with 30 new hives and was preparing them for winter.
