Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 4: Honey Digging, Good Harvest
"Buzz!"

The bees are showing a warning posture, and the sound of their wings vibrating is very piercing.

Fang Hongan simply ignored them, picked up a hoe, and started digging from the rubble above the entrance.

At this moment, the warning state was immediately transformed into an attacking state, and several worker bees stung Fang Hongan.

Fang Hongan protected himself and was not afraid at all. He dug faster and faster. As mud and rocks rolled down, he soon dug out the larger door-sealing stone on the right side of the hive entrance.

According to Fang Hongan's experience, the beehive should be under this stone.

Judging from the way the stone is embedded in the soil, it is estimated that the stone should not weigh more than 200 kilograms, and Fang Hongan can pry it open by himself.

The buzzing sound in his ears was like a riot, and swarms of black worker bees were dancing wildly in front of Fang Hongan.

Several sharp pains came from my arms.

Needless to say, it was those vicious bees that stung me.

Although they were wearing long shirts and long pants, the fabric was still too thin. The ferocity of the wild bees of that time was far from comparable to the Italian bees introduced from abroad in later generations.

Fang Hongan rolled up his sleeves, found the place where he was stung, and took out the bee stinger left on his hand along the direction. He then pinched the stung place and squeezed it hard to squeeze out the blood containing the poison.

Although this simple treatment is rough, the toxins will be greatly reduced. At most there will be a slight swelling tomorrow, but it won't be a big deal.

When I turned around again, more and more dark shadows were pouring out of the exit.

Fang Hongan found a handful of dry branches and grass, and cut a handful of green grass. He took out a match from his trouser pocket, lit the dry branches and grass first, and after the fire was well burnt, he covered them with the larger handful of green grass.

When a raging fire meets green grass, it cannot burn for a while, but the fire will not go out immediately, but will emit bursts of thick white smoke.

Fang Hongan placed the "cigarette handle" that continuously released white smoke at the entrance, then turned around and made two more.

As soon as the three cigarette holders were lit, the whole area was suddenly filled with smoke.

Bees are naturally afraid of thick smoke. As a result, not only were most of the bees around Fang Hongan driven away, but no new bees came out of the exit.

Fang Hongan waited for a while with his back turned. When he felt the smoke gradually thinning out, he immediately picked up the hoe again.

Wild bees are quite alert, and when they sense the hive is in danger, in addition to a number of worker bees responsible for guarding it coming out to attack, the bees inside will also frantically suck the honey from the cells and then move away.

So... we have to hurry.

After digging more than ten times with a hoe, the full picture of the top of the "gate-sealing stone" next to the entrance was basically revealed. Just as Fang Hongan estimated, it was not embedded deeply in the soil and weighed only about 100 pounds.

Fang Hongan used a hoe to pry at the raised part, and the door-sealing stone showed signs of moving.

At this moment, Fang Hongan cleared the dirt and gravel next to the side of the door-sealing stone, and dug a groove of about ten centimeters at the bottom.

After doing all this, Fang Hongan raised the hoe, pressed the hoe blade against the raised part above the door stone, and used the headband to push against the soil above to form a simple and stable lever structure. Then Fang Hongan took a deep breath, held the handle tightly with both hands, and lifted it up with all his strength.

“Ka…Boom…”

With the sound of tearing and collapsing, the stone weighing more than 100 kilograms rolled down, and a large gap was revealed.

Fang Hongan leaned forward and looked inside.

As far as the eye can see, beneath the fluttering yellow and black bee shadows, there are layers of tightly arranged yellow honeycombs.

There are as many as 8 layers displayed in front of Fang Hongan. The top few layers are slightly smaller, but they get bigger as you go deeper.

"This must be more than 30 or 40 kilograms!" Fang Hongan's heart was filled with uncontrollable joy.

Strong bee colonies of this size were rare even in the Qinling Mountains in the previous life!

Stay safe!

Forcing himself to calm down, Fang Hongan took the backpack from the side, unfolded a piece of plastic film that he had prepared in advance, and carefully spread it in the basket.

After making these final preparations, Fang Hongan lay down at the entrance, reached his hand in, passed through the dense and flying swarm of bees, and directly took out the honeycomb.

He was soon stung on his hand, but this could not stop Fang Hongan from being filled with joy.

The first piece of honeycomb was quickly taken out.

This is the outermost honeycomb and also the newest honeycomb built by this group of wild bee colonies. It is lighter in color, appearing light yellow.

In terms of size, the newly built comb at the top is usually the smallest in the entire litter.

But this piece of spleen is as big as two palms and weighs at least two kilograms.

Because it was newly built, the structure of the honey nest was still very fragile. After Fang Hongan took it out, honey immediately flowed out.

Fang Hongan quickly caught the flowing honey with his mouth, and then put the honeycomb into the bamboo basket as quickly as possible.

By the time the honeycomb is put into the basket, the sweet taste with the fragrance of flowers has completely spread in the mouth.

Fang Hongan hadn't tasted this wonderful pure wild honey for nearly twenty years. He felt extremely energetic and unconsciously sped up his hands' movements.

The second piece of honeycomb was quickly taken out. This piece of honeycomb was a circle larger than the first one, and darker in color. It weighed much more than the first one, and it was probably no less than three pounds.

Next is the third piece...

By the time he got to the fourth piece, the entire honeycomb could no longer be taken out with one hand. Fang Hongan could only fold the entire honeycomb into two pieces and take it out in two batches.

The fifth honeycomb was the largest. Fang Hongan divided it into four pieces. Each piece weighed more than two kilograms, and was fully capped and filled with honey!
The sixth piece...

The seventh piece...

When the eighth piece was taken out, Fang Hongan was surprised to find that this was not the last piece. There were actually two more honeycombs further inside!
Ten-story Arhat Nest!
Fang Hongan narrowed his eyes and couldn't help but sigh at his great luck again.

"It seems... God gave me a second chance to reverse the bad luck I had in my previous life!"

Fang Hongan pondered for a moment and gave up the idea of ​​taking out the remaining two honeycombs. He turned around and sealed the backpack, which was half filled with honeycombs, tightly with plastic film. Then he moved a few stones and covered the hole he had dug with them, blocking the gap again, leaving only some finger-sized entrances and exits.

After raising bees for five years, Fang Hongan is already quite familiar with their habits.

Although I have taken out most of the honeycombs, as long as there are still honeycombs and the queen bee is still there, this group of bees will not escape in a short time after I leave.

These two honeycombs are reserved for the bee colony.

As for the queen bee, Fang Hongan had just confirmed that she was on the innermost layer of honeycomb.

"goodbye!"

Waving goodbye to the first swarm of bees that brought him a rich harvest, Fang Hongan put on the backpack that felt heavy on his shoulders, took his luggage, and set off on his journey home with the joy of a good harvest.

(End of this chapter)