Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 19 Bee collection is a technical job
In the beehive.

The bee's figure barely flashed by.

But Fang Hongan had already seen its distinctive characteristics that were unique to the queen bee.

Their color is darker than that of worker bees, and they are obviously larger than other bees, especially their abdomen, which is quite exaggeratedly large!
“So it’s here!”

Fang Hongan stretched out his hand and gently brushed away the bees.

The stacked bee colonies were swept away like mud.

The queen bee that had previously sneaked into the bee colony reappeared.

Without giving him any chance to escape, Fang Hongan stretched out his gloved hand with his thumb, index finger and middle finger and accurately pinched his body from the swarm of bees.

then……

Pick it up, put it in your pocket, all in one go.

The queen bee had no time to react before being put into a black cloth bag.

This black cloth bag is made of coarse cotton cloth with large gaps. After sewing it, Fang Hongan put the cloth bag inside and steamed it while cooking propolis.

The cloth bag is not only breathable, but also has a strong scent of propolis.

These are to ensure that when the bees are collected, the queen bee and other bees can stay safely in the bags, and there will be no unrest or large-scale death.

After entering the bag, the queen bee crawled around in a panic and disorderly manner for a while, but then quickly adapted to the environment and crawled straight to the bottom of the bag.

Seeing this scene, Fang Hongan was completely relieved.

He slowly turned the cloth bag upside down, passed a branch through a joint prepared at the bottom of the bag, then aimed the opening of the bag at the hole in the hive, and fixed both ends of the branch to the stones on both sides.

In this way, the black cloth bag with its bottom facing up and its mouth facing down was placed right above the opening of the honeycomb like a black pot.

After doing all this, Fang Hongan let out a long sigh, turned around and waved to Wang Tong, who had been nervously leaning forward to look inside from outside the thorny moss, indicating that he could come in.

As for Wang Tong, he had been waiting nervously outside since Fang Hongan entered the thorny moss.

He has collected a lot of honey in the past three days, and his fear of bees has been completely eliminated.

After hearing Fang Hongan say that the purpose of today's trip was to collect bees, I couldn't help myself on the way. I wanted to learn from Fang Hongan by handing him something, just like I did when he was collecting honey before. When I had learned enough, I could try it myself.

The abundant harvest from the bee collecting trips in the past few days has made him full of interest in everything.

But what he didn't expect was that after arriving at the place, Fang Hongan asked him to wait outside first and could only go in after receiving news.

Wang Tong naturally knew that Fang Hongan made this arrangement entirely for his own safety.

Although he had never collected bees before, the experience of collecting bees in the past few days gave him some understanding of bee colonies.

There are at least tens of thousands of bees in this hive.

When they were harvesting honey, despite being surrounded by thick smoke and taking full body protection measures, he and Fang Hongan both got stung quite a lot.

Now, in order to collect bees, we cannot release thick smoke, otherwise once the bees start to riot...

Wang Tong didn't even dare to think about the scene. He understood Fang Hongan, and because of his understanding, he became more nervous and worried.

Especially before, Fang Hongan leaned over and observed for a long time, but never made a move.

He was so anxious that he kept pacing outside, wishing he could go in and help look for it.

Fortunately, when he was as anxious as an ant on hot pan, Fang Hongan took action.

Wang Tong could not understand Fang Hongan's subsequent actions at all. He only knew that Fang Hongan should have caught the queen bee and put it into the cloth bag. Then, seeing Fang Hongan waving at him, he hurriedly walked in in two steps.

When he arrived at the beehive, Wang Tong was shocked by the scene before him.

He saw the worker bees and drones in the hive swarming towards the black cloth bag like black smoke. After a while, when he squatted down and looked into the bag with his head, he could see that it was full of black bees.

"Brother! Is it... that simple?"

Wang Tong looked at Fang Hongan hesitantly. If he had not seen this scene with his own eyes, he would not have believed anything he said.

"That's not the case. The most important thing about bee collection is finding the queen bee..."

Worried that Wang Tong might develop some misunderstandings because of this experience, Fang Hongan explained in detail some of the key points and risks of bee collecting.

Wang Tong nodded frequently as he listened, but Fang Hongan was not quite sure how much he had understood.

But there is no need to be too anxious. One of the important reasons why he was so cautious in collecting bees this time was that he was doing it again after "many years" and was somewhat lacking in confidence. After this attempt, this lack of confidence has been completely eliminated. Next time he collects bees, he can have Wang Tong by his side.

Then, you can teach him on the spot, let him help, and let him try these steps freely, so that he can gradually become familiar with and master the skills of collecting bees.

In bee breeding, it is very common for bee colony loss to occur during the breeding process. Collecting bees from the wild to make up for the loss is a long-term daily task. There are many similar things in apiary management. Fang Hongan cannot do everything by himself, so he needs a capable assistant, and Wang Tong is undoubtedly the best choice.

Collecting bees is just the first step, and Wang Tong still has a lot to learn.

Next, the two of them waited by the cloth bag and observed the bees entering the bag.

Under the influence of the queen bee pheromone, the bees in this hive kept pouring into the cloth bag as if they were possessed.

The whole process lasted for a long time. Seeing that all the bees in the cave had been put into the bag, if he waited any longer, only the scattered worker bees that had gone out to collect honey would be left. Fang Hongan did not wait any longer and lit a small cigarette holder again. While smoking, he pushed some bees gathered at the edge of the bag into the bag.

After leaving enough space for tying a knot, he tightened the bag and quickly tied a knot. Then he called on Wang Tong to cut the remaining two honeycombs in the hive.

On these two honeycombs, there are large areas of covered brood combs. The cells of these brood combs are filled with eggs laid by the queen bee. Some of them have developed quite maturely, and the young bees inside will soon emerge from the nest.

Fang Hongan planned to use these two honeycombs as the basic honeycombs for this hive after they were put into the hive, so he specifically instructed Wang Tong to ensure the integrity of the two honeycombs when cutting them.

Wang Tong had already guessed Fang Hongan's purpose. It was not difficult for him to cut the honeycombs when there were almost no bees.

He lay down, took out the fine steel knife from his waist, and in a few moments, the two pieces of honeycomb were put into the bamboo basket intact.

"Let's go! Let's go back!"

Fang Hongan waved his hand, and the two of them walked quickly down the mountain.

(End of this chapter)