Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 21 Wild bees passing through the hive!

Select the location and time for shipping.

Next, Fang Hongan prepared to further prepare the beehives.

First is the inner wall of the beehive.

Although it has been carbonized, most of the odor has been removed.

But for bees with a keen sense of smell, carbonization alone is not enough.

According to Fang Hongan's experience in his previous life, the entire inner wall of the beehive needs to be coated with beeswax.

This step seems simple, but it is actually quite critical.

The operation of applying beeswax can not only cover up the odor of wood, but also create an environment with a familiar smell for the bee colony, so that the bee colony can accept and like the new environment in the hive as soon as possible.

After taking out the beeswax that had been prepared long ago and demonstrating it to Wang Tong, Fang Hongan handed this relatively simple job to him.

After arranging Wang Tong, Fang Hongan took out the honeycombs that he had just cut out from the queen bees.

After the bee colonies enter the hive, if they are asked to build honeycombs from scratch, it will not only cause great damage to the colony, but worse, it will make the entire colony unstable, causing collective escape or large-scale death.

The simplest method is to use ready-made honeycombs and fix them on the honeycomb frames in the beehive as the basic honeycombs for bee colony breeding.

Beekeepers usually call this step "tying the combs".

Tying the honeycomb seems to be as simple as tying the honeycomb to the honeycomb frame, but there are actually some tricks involved.

First of all, the choice of honeycomb is very critical.

As the living environment changes, the newly-placed bee colonies will inevitably become unable to adapt and will tend to escape.

Coating the beehive with beeswax can only alleviate this trend but cannot completely eliminate it.

At the same time, in a new environment, the queen bee's pheromones are often chaotic.

If the basic honeycomb is not selected well, the escape of the bee colony is almost inevitable.

Experienced beekeepers will know that the queen bee has the instinct to lay eggs in the brood nest, and the worker bees also have the nature to take care of the larvae.

Based on these two characteristics, that is, the larger the brood comb area on the basic comb and the more capped larval cells it contains, the easier it is for the queen bee and worker bees to get on the comb and the less likely they are to escape.

Therefore, when choosing the basic comb for tying the spleen, it is best to choose a comb with a large brood area and many larvae sealing the nest cells.

At present, the two basic honeycombs prepared by Fang Hongan perfectly meet these two characteristics.

After selecting the honeycomb, the subsequent operation of tying the honeycomb requires carefulness and caution.

Because there are still a large number of capped, unembryoed bee larvae in the brood comb area, you have to be extra careful when tying the comb. You have to tie the comb firmly and try to avoid hurting the larvae on the brood comb.

This is a meticulous job.

Fang Hongan took a small knife and first trimmed the two honeycombs, cutting off some irregular edges and corners to make the shape of the honeycombs more fit the rectangular nest frame.

Then, Fang Hongan looked at the two honeycombs carefully, selected several straight lines from the honeycombs that could prevent the larvae from sealing the cells, and cut three deep marks along the straight lines with a knife.

Then, pick up a piece of honeycomb, align it with the three iron wires fixed on the nest frame, and press the iron wires into the three deep marks.

After completing this step, the horizontal surface of the honeycomb has been initially fixed on the nest frame.

Next, use cotton thread to fix it longitudinally.

Only when it is completely fixed can this piece of honeycomb be considered tied properly.

Next, the second honeycomb...

Wait until Fang Hongan has tied up two pieces of honeycomb.

Wang Tong has also completed the waxing operation on the inner wall of the beehive.

See there is still time left.

Fang Hongan called Wang Tong and started to make some simple repairs to the thatched house, mainly reinforcing it.

In addition, there was originally a bamboo fence around the outer edge of the thatched house, but due to age, it has become dilapidated and collapsed.

Because the cellar was not used before, Fang Hongan was too lazy to repair it.

But now that it is used as a beehive house, it is necessary to rebuild the fence. It would be best to catch a dog to guard the yard. In this way, we will have a "security system".

Although most of the people living in the mountains are simple and honest, and most people would not rashly open the thatched huts, there are still some thieves who need to be guarded against.

Although it is not possible to repair the fence in the current time, it does not prevent us from making some preparations first.

After some hard work, when it was completely dark, Fang Hongan clapped his hands and called Wang Tong to stop. The two returned to the hut and prepared to start transferring boxes.

After completing sufficient preparations, the subsequent box transfer became much simpler.

Fang Hongan threw a piece of mosquito net cloth to Wang Tong, opened the lid of the beehive, and asked him to cover the beehive half with the cloth, leaving a hole about one-third the size of the beehive.

When Wang Tong was ready, Fang Hongan picked up the black cloth bag for collecting bees.

Without any unnecessary movements, he walked to the beehive and directly untied the knot at the mouth of the cloth bag.

However, his left hand stuffed the bag into the remaining one-third of the beehive, and his right hand holding the bag shook it downwards vigorously.

Compared with the previous tedious and elaborate preparations, this step is much simpler and more crude.

The force gradually increased from light to heavy, and finally he used up all his strength to swing it down.

After clearly sensing that the bees in the cloth bag had been completely thrown into the beehive, Fang Hongan winked at Wang Tong, then picked up the cloth bag and pulled it hard.

As the cloth bag was pulled out, Wang Tong immediately understood what he meant and pulled the mosquito net cloth to cover the remaining one-third of the opening.

At the same time, Fang Hongan, who had thrown the beehive bag on the ground, picked up the lid of the beehive and put it on.

This set of coordination was so smooth and connected that it didn't seem like the first time. After the whole process was completed, not even a bee escaped.

After closing the box lid, you cannot leave immediately. You must make sure that the bees in the box have settled down and started to "settle down".

The two waited for about fifteen minutes before Fang Hongan carefully opened the lid of the beehive from one corner.

He first opened a small hole and took a look inside. After seeing that he did not see the bees "rioting", he half-opened the lid of the entire beehive.

By the way, he also tore off the mosquito net covering the room.

Taking a closer look with a flashlight, I saw that the two tied honeycombs were already densely packed with bees.

Fang Hongan looked around again and again, and soon found the queen bee who was laying eggs in the brood cell.

"All right!"

Fang Hongan clapped his hands and completely relaxed.

The bee colony, especially the queen bee, has begun laying eggs.

It has been fully demonstrated that the entire bee colony has completely accepted the new environment of the sealed box.

There is no doubt that this box transfer has been a success.

Patted Wang Tong on the shoulder: "Let's go home and have dinner."

"Okay!"

After hearing what Fang Hongan said, Wang Tong's face was also full of joy.

The two men walked out of the hut, feeling the already dark sky, and walked towards the mud house, talking and laughing.

After turning two corners, the mud house with dim lights flickering was right in front of me.

At this time, two figures suddenly caught up quickly.

(End of this chapter)