How talking to the bees helped an Almeda fire victim recover some of her business loss

TALENT, Ore. — When the Almeda fire broke out, Ruby Reid had just enough time to grab a few things from her home business in Talent before fleeing as the flames encroached. She said after the fire destroyed her business, Valhalla Organics and demolished her home and honey production farm, one of the first things she did was tell the bees.

“There’s a tradition of telling the bees when there’s big news in the beekeeper family you’re supposed to let the bees know about this,” Reid explained.

Thankfully the beehives were safe. Reid keeps beehives in Bonanza, Oregon where they produce the organic honey she sells. She explained after the fire, she broke the news to the bees of what had happened to their honey supply.

“I went up and let them know we lost everything, and all of their hard work was gone, and we were really going to need some help," she said.

Reid noted that the family business lost everything except for the hives.

“We lost all of the production equipment, all of the products, all the ingredients for Valhalla Organics, and we had just done the biggest honey harvest ever, we had a couple of hundred pounds of honey that was freshly bottled and ready to go,” she said.

She said she was grateful to have made it out alive with her cats.

“It was definitely by the skin of the teeth type of escape situation,” she said. “I left with enough clothes, the cats but nothing sentimental at all.”

After losing everything she relocated to Klamath Falls where she has begun to rebuild and reproduce what was burned.

She said it turns out talking to the bees must have worked because they made a second harvest, something she said she has never seen them do before.

“We were able to leave them with more honey on the hives this winter than we have ever before and take a second harvest,” she said.

After losing it all, she credits those around her for helping her thrive through the devastation.

“It’s been a difficult and challenging process of putting everything together from scratch, but it has been so incredible how this community is showing up for one another,” Reid said.

Valhalla Organics can be found at local stores in the Rogue Valley, including Oregon Cheese Cave, and the Food Co-ops in Medford and Ashland.