Last Friday in a windstorm, I had a hive take a pretty severe tumble and roll. It was ratcheted together and held. Within a few hours we had it righted and back in place. All looked good Saturday, could hear a buzz inside. Left Sunday AM for holidays, came back yesterday afternoon and could see some honey dripping out the entrance and weeping between the seems of boxs 1-2 (3-8frame deeps) on the side that had been on the ground. Not all that much...maybe a cup or less, hard to tell, and honey doesn't flow so fast at the temps we are in now (4-20F).
Obviously some comb is broken or torn (the intial fall of the hive was broadside to the combs :(). My instinct is to say the "die is cast" at this point and leave things alone until early spring. Hard to imagine I would do anything but make it worse even if we got a few days of 45 between now and then....say end of March. The one thing I had considered is getting a few helpers and swapping out the bottom board so they don't have to slog through a sticky mess on the few days we get for cleaning flights during that time. waste of effort?
Being relatively new to this I am wondering when is the best time to get in and fix things. Part of me sees the advantage of doing so before significant brooding begins again, but that is pretty early from what I understand.
It also seems like it would be nice do the work before they have a chance to start repairing/bridging things together while out of place.
this of course all assumes they make it to spring and have not lost/damaged the queen during this adventure.