BELLEVUE, Neb. (KMTV) — A Bellevue honey store is rebuilding after flash flooding wiped out nearly all of its 35 beehives, leaving the owner to start over from scratch while leaning on an outpouring of community support.
"Our bees were completely washed out throughout the field. Gone. More than half of them were completely gone," Anna-Marie Mistanoglu said.
Mistanoglu said she was not prepared to hear that flash flooding had killed her bees and swept away their hives.
"You care for them and you do so much work with them that they do become part of the family. It's like losing a family member, like a pet, it's a huge loss," Mistanoglu said.
Mistanoglu said she believed all 35 of her beehives were gone, but was eventually able to salvage five hives and later recover part of a sixth one.
"The next day my husband was driving down 75 and he saw something white in the creek and stopped, went and checked and it was another hive so we were able to save a small amount of bees but enough I guess — five frames worth of bees," Mistanoglu said.
But the loss is significant for Beauty and the Bees. Ninety percent of their bees were located in Bellevue, with the remainder in Murray, Nebraska.
"We're going to have to buy new hive-ware and that includes building new hives and purchasing new bees, but yeah we're going to have to start all over because it's too late in the season to do anything so we've got to wait until next spring to start again," Mistanoglu said.
With the support of the community, Mistanoglu said she has found the strength to keep going. A customer shared what keeps them coming back to the store.
"My favorite thing to buy is always the sorbet. She makes the best sorbet ever," customer, Piper Allen said.
Allen encourages others to visit and support the small business.
"Honestly there is just so much to offer here and it's a small business so I think you should come and support," she said.
"I'm really surprised. I didn't think we made that much of an impact on our community but our community has been just amazing. We've had a lot of new customers come in that didn't know we were here and it's been overwhelming and I'm just really happy," Mistanoglu said.
A GoFundMe has been created to help support the business until next spring's harvest season.
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