Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 50 Two New Beekeeping Tools

In the workshop full of sawdust.

Carpenter Yang first stared at the drawings Fang Hongan gave him for a long time.

Then, he asked with a puzzled look on his face: "What do you use this thing for?"

Looking at his confused expression, Fang Hongan unexpectedly felt secretly happy at this moment.

Hey!

I finally can’t guess it this time!

Fang Hongan was about to tease the old carpenter when Yang Maolin's eyes suddenly glared at the center of the blueprint, as if he had grasped some clue: "The dimensions of the space inside this card seem to be exactly the same as the dimensions of the beehive frame you asked me to make last time. Could it be that... if I put the beehive frame in and shake it, I can shake the honey out?"

Yang Maolin looked at Fang Hongan with a look of disbelief.

Fang Hongan: “…”

The sense of pride that had just emerged in his heart disappeared completely after the old carpenter said this.

Ginger is really spicy when it’s old!

The old carpenter's eyes are truly amazing.

Just by looking at a detail in size, one can completely guess the function of the thing Fang Hongan is going to make.

That’s right, what Fang Hongan asked the old carpenter to make this time was a honey shaker for shaking honey.

Honey shaker, along with movable frame beehive and foundation machine, are known as the three major beekeeping tools in modern beekeeping.

The main function is to fix the honeycomb on a rotatable grid, and then use a joystick to shake the grid to make it rotate, so as to use the centrifugal force generated by the rotation to throw the honey out of the honeycomb.

Depending on the size requirements, there are vertical and horizontal shapes. Regardless of the style, the general appearance is barrel-shaped.

Compared with Fang Hongan's physical method of directly crushing the honeycomb to extract honey, the honey shaker has many unmatched advantages in honey extraction.

First of all, to use a honey shaker to shake the honey, you only need to scrape off the cover on the honey comb with a scraper, and then put the entire honey comb into the honey shaker and shake it to extract the honey.

After shaking the honey, the basic structure of the entire honey comb is not damaged except for the honey that is shaken out. The honey comb can be put back into the beehive for reuse by the bee colony.

This eliminates the need for physical kneading and squeezing of honey. After collecting the honey, the worker bees have to rebuild the honeycombs.

From a breeding perspective, this not only reduces the loss of the bee colony, but also maximizes the honey production rate of the bee colony.

In addition, compared with the laborious and tedious process of extracting honey by physical kneading, extracting honey by a honey shaker is much easier and simpler.

Even if it is shaken manually, a teenager can easily produce 100 kilograms of honey a day.

In addition, in terms of hygiene, convenience, etc., the advantages of the honey shaker are incomparable to physical kneading and squeezing of honey.

It was based on the above considerations that Fang Hongan thought of making the honey extractor as soon as possible.

Because the working state of the honey shaker requires long-term and vigorous shaking, in terms of material, metal is undoubtedly the best material for making the honey shaker.

The most suitable one is undoubtedly the most common stainless steel barrel honey shaker in later generations.
But right now, not to mention the staggeringly high price of stainless steel, even in a poor and remote area like Xiaonan, it is difficult to find a workshop that can produce products with the right precision and specifications.

Steel is not an option either. The price of this material is acceptable, and forging and crafting are not a problem. However, honey is an acidic substance, and chemical reactions will easily occur when it comes into contact with iron for a long time, which will not only affect the color and taste of the honey, but will also have adverse effects on the body if consumed for a long time.

As for things like antimony and tin...

Neither is very suitable.

After much deliberation, Fang Hongan finally decided to find an old carpenter to make a main structure out of wood.

Although it may be more prone to wear and tear, it is cheap and has high safety performance.

As for wear and tear… the old carpenter is there to protect it. If it breaks, just ask him to fix it. Before going to the market, Fang Hongan listed the hardware accessories such as bearings and buckles needed for the honey extractor on his shopping list, and he bought them according to the list yesterday.

Now, we just have to wait for Carpenter Yang to make it according to the drawings and then assemble it.

"Uncle! You really have sharp eyes! You saw through it all!"

"This thing is called a honey shaker, and its main function is..."

Since the old carpenter had already guessed the function of the honey extractor, Fang Hongan immediately explained the function and working principle of the honey extractor to the old carpenter in detail.

As the old carpenter listened, he compared the parts of the drawings in his hand that he did not fully understand, and from time to time he would exclaim in sudden enlightenment.

After Fang Hongan finished speaking, he went over the entire drawing in his mind and held up three fingers to Fang Hongan: "This is the first time I've made this. It will take at least three days to finish it!"

"Okay! No rush!" When Fang Hongan heard that the old carpenter was willing to do it, a happy smile appeared on his face.

As for time, there is no need to rush.

Besides, given Yang Maolin's style, the three days he mentioned is usually the latest completion time.

Generally speaking, once he says this, he will complete it ahead of time.

"Isn't there one more thing?" After folding the drawings of the honey extractor and putting them away, Carpenter Yang narrowed his eyes and took the initiative to extend his hand to Fang Hongan.

After the previous movable frame beehives and now the honey extractor, Yang Maolin was no longer surprised by Fang Hongan's professional drawings when it came to drawing blueprints.

What he was curious about now was what the second thing Fang Hongan wanted him to make this time would be.

Judging from the two things mentioned above, it should be related to beekeeping.

But Yang Maolin thought about it for a long time, but he really couldn't think of anything else in terms of beekeeping that he, a carpenter, needed to make.

"Oh! Oh! I almost forgot!"

Fang Hongan quickly took out another drawing from his pocket.

Strictly speaking, this drawing has not yet been completed.

Therefore, when Fang Hongan was packing up earlier, he did not fold it together with the drawings of the honey extractor.

However, thinking of the fiery eyes of old carpenter Yang, I brought it up when I asked him to make something.

Carpenter Yang took it in his hand, took a look at it, and realized that it was only a semi-finished product.

But compared with the previous drawings of movable frame beehives and honey extractors, this drawing is much simpler.

Although it was a semi-finished product, Carpenter Yang could fully understand what the blueprint was going to do after just one glance.

But precisely because he saw through it, the expression on his face was even more surprised than when he had seen the drawing of the honey extractor before.

"Hongan!"

"You...are you using this to help bees build hives?"

"This beekeeping... does it mean that even this beehive... has to be built for the bees?"

The old carpenter curled his lips, revealing a rare expression of complaint...

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(End of this chapter)