My village can't be like this

Chapter 384 Giving Bees
When Zhang An mentioned beekeeping, he remembered who Old Man Qian was.

When Zhang An first started keeping bees, he wanted to ask someone.

After asking around a lot, I found out that there was indeed such a beekeeper nearby, the old man Qian from Xiahewan.

There is no way, there are too few people keeping bees now.

Although Old Man Qian only kept two buckets of bees, he had been keeping them for many years, so he was definitely more familiar with them than Zhang An, who knew nothing about them.

So Zhang An had gone to Xiahewan Village to look for money from an old man before.

But unfortunately, I went at the wrong time. Uncle Renqian was not at home and went out to visit relatives.

After coming back, he happened to meet the uncle who taught him how to keep bees, so Zhang An never went to see Old Man Qian again.

Although Zhang An went to look for him last time, he didn't see anyone, so Zhang An didn't recognize him today.

"Uncle Qian's bees are all freezing to death? Didn't you add partitions to the bee bucket to keep them warm?"

Preventing cold and keeping warm in winter is a task that every beekeeper must do.

Generally, in years that are not too cold, you only need to keep enough honeycombs, and then there will be more bees than spleens.

This is the dense clump heating and insulation method of bees, allowing them to huddle together to stay warm.

This method would rather crowd the bees than allow more spleens in the nest. Otherwise, the bee colony will be too small and there will be no effect.

But it cannot be used in years that are too powerful, such as last winter, and the way to keep warm is to add more partitions in the beehive, and then add some insulation items outside the partitions.

For example, old clothes and rags. If the winter is too cold, you may need to cover them with old quilts.

But in this era, everyone's conditions are not that good.

In the mountains, worn-out clothes can be worn for several years even if they are mended and mended. They will not be used to make other clothes until they are no longer worn out.

For example, collect them and make them into rag quilts, or use them as rags. Cut out the good parts and continue to mend them on other clothes. Anyway, there will be no waste.

Don't even think about old quilts. Most people have them as inherent assets.

As long as it can still be covered, it will not be discarded. If there are big holes everywhere and it can no longer be covered, it will be used to make a bed.

Therefore, the most common things people use to cover beehives are linen bags.

Cover it up in the winter and take it down for use next spring.

Of course, Zhang An didn't ask why he didn't move the beehives home.

Let's just say that Old Man Qian's house is just a house, and the coal stove and stove are all at home.

After moving the beehives home, the bees will probably die faster than outside. The smell of soot or firewood smoke is too deadly for them.

"Partitions were also added, and several linen sacks were covered on the outside, and a thick layer of corn grass was placed on the outside. But the snow last year was too heavy, and they still couldn't survive. Lu Dacheng from Baiyan Town, his bees are better There are many, and they can still be covered with quilts, but they are basically dead, and the few remaining ones will run away in the beginning of this spring.”

As expected, Old Man Qian used a linen bag, but he also had experience and added straw.

After all, they have experienced particularly cold winters before, and this is how they got there.

But Zhang An didn't expect that doing this would actually freeze the bees in the beehive to death.

Moreover, Old Man Qian also talked about Lu Dacheng, whom Zhang An knew and who told him how to keep bees.

Even the bees in his house froze to death, and the bees in other houses may not be spared either.

The reason why bees froze to death this year has nothing to do with keeping warm.

Because his old man is the best beekeeper Zhang An has ever seen, there is no way he can't do all these tasks well.

The most likely reason is that it was too cold during the snowy days last winter.

Only then did Zhang An realize that the bees from his own space seemed quite powerful.

Zhang An added layers to the boxes in the backyard to keep them warm, and Zhang Jianguo carried them back to the utility room before it started to snow, so not a single bee died.

As for the old house, because Zhang An had forgotten about it, he didn't care about anything.

In this way, some of the bees were frozen to death, and many of the bees were too old to survive.

In fact, Zhang An didn't know that it was for this reason that Old Man Qian came to him to divide the bees.

Beekeeping will attract bees. Although there are not many bees at home, there are many bees in the wild.

In the mountains, it is simply not a problem for Old Man Qian to attract one or two boxes of bees.

"So I heard that your bees are easy to raise and are not afraid of the cold, so I wanted to come to you to buy a box and raise them."

Old man Qian did learn from other people's mouths at first that there were still a lot of bees in Zhang An's house this year, and there was no sign of them freezing to death.

After all, the bee swarm in Zhang An's backyard has been flying out in groups since the beginning of spring. It doesn't seem to be decreasing in number at all, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that.

Old man Qian didn't believe it at first, because he knew that for people who kept bees, the bees were almost frozen to death.

But whether he believed it or not, he still came to Changqing to visit for a few days.

He didn't believe it until he saw the bees in Zhang An's backyard, flying in groups every day to the orchard in the back mountain to collect honey.

After all, if you freeze to death, you won't be able to recover so quickly. Although bees reproduce quickly, they are not that fast.

This made him feel that Zhang An's bees were different from the local bees they raised before.

After all, bees that can withstand freezing in winter are the favorite species of every beekeeper.

And after several days of observation, he found that Zhang An's bee was indeed better than the other bees.

That's why Old Man Qian made up his mind to come over to Zhang An to share a box with him and raise it, even if he just spent more money to buy some.

"Just buy it. Since Uncle Qian came here specifically, there's no reason why I shouldn't give it to you. When you leave later, just take a box back with you."

Old man Qian wanted to divide the bees, but Zhang An agreed after thinking about it. After all, he asked Zhang Jianwen to bring him here.

Not to mention the fine tradition of respecting the elderly and loving the young, Zhang An will also give face to his old uncle Zhang Jianwen.

Although the current bees can be worth 30 yuan per box, the better ones may be [-] yuan.

The space bees in Zhang An's house are much better than those outside. If you meet someone who knows the goods, you can sell them for a hundred without any problem.

But Zhang An didn't want to collect money from the old man. After all, he didn't lack hundreds of dollars.

It's better to treat it as a favor to old man Qian, and keep it nearby in case there is a need to find someone else's place in the future.

After all, a favor worth a hundred dollars is not an ordinary small favor for Mr. Qian.

"How can this be done? It's the rule to give money to bees."

When Old Man Qian heard Zhang An say that he would give him a box for free, he thought Zhang An was being polite, so he became polite too.

After all, Zhang An can say polite words, but he can't take it for granted, otherwise others will say that he doesn't know how to behave.

"The bees of yours are definitely not worth the money, but you can take them first, and I will send you two jars when the honey comes out."

For this reason, Old Man Qian took out a crumpled 50 yuan bill and handed it to Zhang An.After raising bees for so many years, he would not be able to recognize this bee, but he did not have much money.

But he also said that he would give Zhang An two more cans of bees later, which would be worth a lot of money.

A jar of honey usually weighs two kilograms, and two jars cost more than fifty or sixty yuan. This is the price of ordinary honey, and good ones will be more expensive.

After all this calculation, it was more than 100 yuan. Mr. Qian really wanted to buy it.

"Okay, Uncle Qian, I have a lot of bees at home, and there will be a batch that will be separated out in a few days. I have a headache. Anyway, it's just a box of bees, you can just take it."

Recently, Zhang An discovered that new queen bees were bred on the thrones of several beehives.

Zhang An is reluctant to get rid of them, so when the new queen bee comes out, it is imperative to separate the bees.

Otherwise, it would be a waste if all the bees he has are gone due to the fever of bee separation.

Although there are still many bees in the space, we can continue to lure them out.

But he has been raising this batch of bees for two years. Not only do they work hard to collect honey for him, but they also look after his home and care for his home. It would be a lie to say that they have no feelings.

And although dividing the bees is troublesome, once the bees are divided, there will be more bees in the house.

"Then I, an old man, will accept your child's love."

Old man Qian was not good at dealing with these kinds of favors, so he said a few polite words to Zhang An and then stopped insisting.

This sentence also means that he recorded Zhang An's favor.

Such people often value favors.

Then Zhang An took him to the backyard to select bees, but unfortunately, all the bees flew out of several boxes, and few were in the boxes.

There was nothing he could do, so Zhang An took Old Man Qian to the old house to look at the other two boxes.

The result was okay. In the box where half the bees were frozen to death, there were still quite a few bees in the nest.

At that moment, Zhang An gave the box of bees to Old Man Qian.

Old Man Qian was very happy. Although this was only half a box, the bee colony was much larger than the entire box he had raised before.

If there is an extra queen bee on the throne, it can be divided into two boxes at any time.

After sending Old Man Qian away, Uncle Zhang Jianwen did not leave.

"Zhang An, your bees are much better than those they raise, right?"

Seeing how happy Old Man Qian was before leaving, and his cheerful expression when he gave the money just now, Zhang Jianwen knew that Zhang An was definitely not a simple person.

"It's indeed much better than those bees outside. Not only are the bees better, the honey produced is also much better."

Without outsiders here, Zhang An was not so humble when he spoke.

Moreover, what he said was not a lie. Although he is not the best in bee breeding now, he can at least be ranked at the front.

"By the way, uncle, you haven't tasted my honey yet, right? I'll give you some to try."

Although Zhang Jianwen came to Zhang An's house many times, he mostly drank wine. He had never tried this honey.

Although he refused, Zhang An still poured him a small cup and then a glass of warm water.

"This bee sugar is quite delicious. It's sweet and has a slightly sour taste. It's not as cloying as other bee sugar. I feel a lot more relaxed after drinking it."

Not to mention honey, just other sweet things, who wouldn't like it now.

Although they are sold on the street, few people buy them in rural areas because they cost money and are too expensive.

But even so, everyone has tasted it more or less. Not to mention that there are many wild bees in the mountains, there must be wild honey.

Just say that on many roadside reed poles or wormwood poles, as long as bees appear and there are bumps, you can find native honey.

When Zhang An and his friends were young, they liked to find reed or wormwood stalks like this, break them off and smoke them directly.

Zhang Jianwen just took a small sip and felt that it tasted very good. After finishing the drink, he felt different.

Although I didn't feel any physical discomfort before, I was still a little sore and swollen after working hard, but after drinking the honey water Zhang An gave me, I could obviously feel relaxed.

"That's right, this honey can relieve fatigue. When you are tired from work, drink a glass of honey water and you will feel a lot more relaxed. It can also replenish your blood."

Before Su Ying was pregnant, she was very weak during those days, and her face was very pale and lacked any color.

Hemorrhagic disease naturally requires blood replenishment. Zhang An has tried stewed eggs with angelica root and jujubes stewed with brown sugar.

Although they are all effective, the most effective one is their honey mixed with warm water. It takes effect immediately after drinking it, and it is not troublesome.

"Uncle, you have been busy here and there in the past year, so you must be tired. Take a bottle with you when you go back later, and drink a little every day. It will be good for your health."

"Okay, but don't take too much. A little bit of this can be mixed with a large glass of water. If you drink too much, it will be easy to drink."

Ha'ahui means deterioration. Lard or honey cannot be stored well and will easily taste bad after being stored for a long time. People in rural areas call it ha'a.

Zhang Jianwen did not refuse Zhang An's kindness. Anyway, Zhang An would give his family a portion of whatever food he had here. He had long been used to it.

"But Zhang An, your honey is so good, it should be more expensive than other honey."

Other beeswax can weigh 31 kilograms, but Zhang Jianwen from Zhang An’s family thinks he can sell more.

"Last time, people from the city came here to buy it and gave them 80 yuan a pound."

Last time, a city man was stung by a bee and came to Zhang An's house to look for honey to rub on. He took a sip and fell in love with the honey.

Finally, he begged Wang Fang to sell some to him. At first, he paid 50 yuan per catty. The price was twice that of other honeys. Wang Fang was a little stunned.

But when the man saw that Wang Fang was silent, he thought that Wang Fang thought the price was low, so he increased the price to eighty. In the end, Wang Fang happily sold him five kilograms.

It was precisely because of that person's promotion that someone later came to Zhang An's house to buy honey.

Although Zhang An didn't intend to specialize in selling honey, if someone came to the door, it wouldn't cost him anything. Of course, he wouldn't stop doing this business.

Anyway, not counting those in the space, the few boxes of bees at home would provide him with a lot of bees every year, so he kept them there.

"What, 81 pounds? It's so expensive, why don't you raise more bees?"

Although Zhang Jianwen thought that the honey would be a little more expensive, he didn't expect it to be so expensive. One pound was worth three pounds.

"Uncle, look at my large orchard, fish pond, and so many other things. How can I find the energy to do this?"

"Come on, you either sit or lie down every day. I don't see you busy with anything."

In the past, Zhang Jianwen might have taken it seriously. After all, Zhang An's job was indeed quite big.

In the past two years, Zhang Jianwen has seen through Zhang An's rhetoric. Where he is busy, he is clearly lazy.

Seeing Zhang Jianwen exposing himself mercilessly, Zhang An did not refute, but smiled on his face.

(End of this chapter)