Bees..... Alive or Dead?

I took Degsy for a spin to see the bees. I have been trying to keep away but folk keeping asking me how they are doing since we had all that snow. I trundled over there and was dismayed as I went over the River Mease at Netherseal. The river had burst it banks, not as badly as have seen it but it definitely out of its box. After crossing the bridge I do not see the river again until I get to the gate of the water meadow the bees are in. The banks were flooded here too but no where near to the bees. The ground slopes up quite a lot from the bank side to the bees plus the hive is on a stilage above the ground. My brother, who was with me, reckoned that the river would have to come up another three feet to reach the bottom of the hive. We looked out across the valley of the Mease to visualise another three feet of water and reckoned something quite exceptional would have to happen to get that much water into the valley. Not wishing to tempt fate we knocked on wood.
To answer the question "how are they doing?", they are doing well. There are dead bees on the floor of the hive but that is to be expected. However you can hear the bees humming inside the hive. Bees usually manage the winter unless they are disturbed or get wet. The danger time is early spring. If it is too warm they can exhaust their food reserves, dying of starvation before the spring flower come into bloom. And there is nothing the keeper can do about it! Fingers crossed for another four months.