Wild Hive in Petrolia

Today I took my friend Ananda out to collect a wild hive. She's been wanting to start beekeeping, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity.




Petrolia is on the Mattole River out on the Lost Coast of Humboldt County, reached by a narrow, windy, potholed road. The scenery is lovely, but sometimes must be missed if one is not to plunge off the road or get hit by an oncoming vehicle. The town is in a lovely broad valley that is home to many back-to-the-landers. The cabin with the wild hive was a bit out of town, just a poison oak-laden stone's throw from the river. I was expecting the weather to be horribly hot, but it was a most comfortable mid-70ish day.

This particular wild hive was in a solar power battery box, and was small but thriving. The bees were very mellow, and tolerated us removing and trimming comb remarkably well. This was an intermediate to advanced level beekeeping exercise, but Ananda bravely stood her ground amid a cloud of confused bees. I believe her only other beeking experience was helping me with a hive inspection last year. Our only problem was that a large number of them kept leaving the hive box, and settling on the cabin wall in a large cluster. We would brush them into the box, and more would gather. Thinking that perhaps they just needed some time, we drove back into town for a lunch break.

Oh my goodness, if you find yourselves at the Petrolia Market, and there's freshly barbecued tri tip and pork ribs (and you're a meat-eater), buy some and devour it on the spot! We quickly polished off a pound of sliced tri tip, and had apples for dessert.

On our return to the cabin, we found the main cluster still on the wall, and several small clusters of bees in fights to the death. It appeared that a nearby hive had scented the honey, and had come to rob our hive. We swept up as many bees as we could, dumped them into the hive box and closed it all up. A small but lively cloud of bees followed us to the car, and joined us inside. They behaved themselves quite well on the drive back.

Ananda also keeps chickens, a turkey and rabbits. The turkey closely supervised the hive set-up. I think she was watching me, but she could have been thinking about a little bee snack once our backs were turned.