Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 85: Lure the Ghost Bee
"Pork! Big fat pork!"

The loud shouts continued to echo.

After Wang Tong stood up, Fang Hongan also stood up.

That’s right, the bee attractant that Fang Hongan was waiting for was this pork.

The ghost wasp is a mainly carnivorous bee and is quite sensitive to the taste of meat.

Although most of their food is small insects like bees, raw meat of livestock is more tempting to them than these small insects.

It's May and the weather is already very hot.

It is actually very difficult to eat meat in a mountainous village like Shiwan Village.

Whether you buy meat from the county town or the market, the meat will most likely become smelly after being exposed to the sun on the road.

There used to be a pig butcher in the village.

This butcher happened to be the father-in-law of Uncle Fang Hongan, and the father of Aunt Diao Xie Liucui.

But later, the butcher broke his hand in an accident, and the production team's communal dining system was replaced by contracting land to each household, so Butcher Xie stopped slaughtering pigs.

Nowadays, if the villagers of Shiwan Village want to eat pork, they can either find someone to kill their own pigs, or wait for the butchers in big villages to slaughter the pigs and then sell them along the villages. If they come across the butchers, they can buy some.

The butcher closest to Shiwan Village is in Jiangjialing Village, where Fang Hongan and his friends went yesterday.

When I came back yesterday, I happened to see the butcher collecting pigs. I knew that he was going to slaughter pigs this morning and carry them to Shiwan Village to sell.

So, Fang Hongan made contact with the butcher Jiang yesterday and decided to buy pork today.

Now, after waiting for most of the morning, the butcher finally arrived.

Wang Tong was already getting anxious when he saw the powerful shouting voice repeated again and again but Butcher Jiang hadn't shown up yet.

"Brother! I'll go bring him over!"

Wang Tong ran over quickly following the sound.

can't find...

Fang Hongan also thought of this.

Although Butcher Jiang has been selling pork for some time.

But given the conditions in Shiwan Village, people can buy pork once a month.

There are only a few of them.

For a few of them, Butcher Jiang would probably leave with his eyes closed.

But for someone like him, he had only bought meat from Butcher Jiang once.

It's completely normal that Butcher Jiang can't find it.

Although, when ordering pork yesterday, Fang Hongan pointed out the approximate location to him.

Probably less than two minutes later, when he came back, a sturdy man with a round head, a big belly and a thick neck, carrying a pair of baskets, was following him.

It was the butcher Jiang whom I met yesterday.

Just as Fang Hongan thought.

When I saw Fang Hongan at the front door of the earthen house.

Butcher Jiang's face showed obvious surprise. He obviously didn't expect that the big buyer he had been looking for for so long would actually live in this kind of mud house.

However, he is also an old man.

He adjusted himself quickly, waved, and walked up with a smile.

"Here I am! Here I am! Brother Fang! The meat you ordered yesterday has been reserved for you in advance!"

There is a reason why he is so enthusiastic.

One reason was that Fang Hongan bought a lot and asked for five kilograms at one time.

Secondly, Fang Hongan bought pork belly and spareribs which were not easy to sell.

The most important thing is that Fang Hongan paid half of the money in advance yesterday.

This kind of deal is really a good deal.

He weighed the pork belly and spare ribs again in front of Fang Hongan, and also took the initiative to give Fang Hongan a pork kidney.

I bought five kilograms at one time.

For such potential customers, it is necessary to maintain good relationships in advance.

At this age when one is full of vigor and vitality, nothing can be better than giving pig kidneys...

The young man is full of energy!
Pork kidneys make your guns stronger!

It's a pity that the pig gun of this big fat pig was taken away by his brother-in-law when the pig was slaughtered early in the morning.

It's a waste to eat that soft thing.

If I bring it here and show it to this young man in front of me, I will definitely be able to sell it for a good price!
……

……

Buy good pork.

Return to the house.

Fang Hongan took a knife and cut a small piece from the two pounds of pork belly, put it in a small bowl and put it into the bamboo basket.

As for the other meat, it was covered with a bamboo basket and placed in a cool and ventilated place.

When his wife comes back from delivering the honey cake to the old carpenter's house, she will naturally take care of it.

Nowadays, people's favorite pork is still the kind with fat.

As a result, pork ribs and pork belly, the two best-selling and more expensive meats in later generations, are not selling well.

The price for the five kilograms Fang Hongan bought was slightly lower.

So, Fang Hongan made an agreement with the butcher.

From now on, whenever you slaughter a pig, you can visit their house every three to five days.

Now that we are making money, the quality of the food must be improved.

The first thing to do is to increase the intake of meat protein.

Especially pregnant wives need to supplement more calcium.

You should stew and drink more pork rib soup and bone soup. The old people said that if you drink more soup during pregnancy, the baby will be easier to raise.

After cleaning up the chopping board used to cut the meat, Fang Hongan and Wang Tong returned to the main room, took all their equipment, and went out and went straight to the thatched cottage.

First, I looked at and checked the six beehives in the hut.

The three boxes of bees numbered 4, 5, and 6 were moved the day before going to the county town. At most, it has been less than three days since then, so it is best not to open the boxes to check.

It is enough to stare at the hive exit and see if the frequency and posture of the worker bees entering and exiting are quite normal, and to determine that the situation in the beehive should be basically stable.

As for the three boxes of bees numbered 1, 2, and 3.

It has been a while since the bee colony was transferred to the hive, and it has completely adapted and stabilized.

Fang Hongan put on a bee hat, opened the lids of the boxes one by one, and started checking them directly.

It’s the peak nectar flow period, and the bee colonies are strong.

Once you open the beehive, you can see densely packed bees inside, a busy and prosperous scene.

The few small honeycombs that were tied at the beginning have expanded into large honeycombs that almost fill the entire live frame thanks to the hard work of the worker bees.

In order to check the condition of the honeycomb, Fang Hongan directly took out the movable frame and looked at it carefully one by one.

Not only are the honeycombs full, but the brood and honey combs are also "full of fruit".

According to this encouraging situation, in about ten days, the live frames of these three boxes of bees can be taken out to shake the honey.

This speed is even faster than Fang Hongan had expected!
After checking the beehive.

Fang Hongan called Wang Tong, and the two of them took out hammers, nails and wooden boards and carried out necessary reinforcement on the support of the thatched hut.

I was originally planning to move on and clean up the haystack covering the thatched hut.

But just when the two men finished reinforcing the support and came out to look for the haystack, Wang Tong, who was walking in front, suddenly pointed to the sky above and said, "Brother! Ghost Head Bee!"

Ever since he accidentally stepped on a hive of hornets and was chased away in a panic, he has become particularly sensitive to hornets.

His ability to identify ghost bees by sound is even better than Fang Hongan's.

Fang Hongan looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, he saw a ghost-headed bee flying towards him.

The direction from which this creature appeared was even closer to the thatched house than the one Hongan saw three days ago.

"It's you!"

Fang Hongan turned back to the thatched house, took out the small bowl of meat, picked up a long branch, put the meat on the branch, then aimed at the branch where the wasp was resting and stuck the branch on the ground near the branch.

Then he stepped aside and waited.

The ghost wasp is extremely sensitive to raw meat. At such a close distance, based on Fang Hongan's experience, it is inevitable to lure this ghost wasp.

Sure enough, after the two of them waited quietly by the side, less than half a minute passed, the bee that was perched on the branch took off again, flew two circles in a disorderly manner, and then flew straight towards the branch with the meat on it.

After he had been sitting on the piece of raw meat for about 5 seconds, Fang Hongan asked Wang Tong to get up and walked over while taking something out of his pocket.

Even in the 21st century with abundant material resources, once Kibito Bee finds raw meat, his level of infatuation is no less than that of a teenager addicted to playing games on the internet.

Not to mention, in this small mountain village in 84, people could hardly eat meat once a month.

Until Fang Hongan and Wang Tong walked to the branch, the ghost bee that was obsessed with tearing the piece of meat didn't notice anything.

At this time, Fang Hongan had already taken out two small items from his pocket.

In the left hand is a super fine cotton thread.

In his right hand he held a fine chicken feather.

The same is true for luring the queen bees and watching the bee path.

Bees will be able to find the bee trail when the number of bees returning to the hive increases.

But in the same swarm, the number of ghost bees is far less than that of honey bees.

When foraging, ghost wasps prefer to act alone, with only a few or ten of them going out at most.

The tactic of relying on numbers to find the bee path will never work on the ghost bee.

To find the path of the ghost bee, you need the help of these two small tools in Fang Hongan's hand.

Fang Hongan twisted the thin cotton thread in his hand and first tied up the light and fluffy chicken feather that could float in the air at any time. Then he tied a tightened noose at the other end of the thin cotton thread.

He winked at Wang Tong and asked him to pull up the branch stuck in the ground.

Wang Tong was very cautious at first for fear of scaring the ghost bee away.

But he soon discovered that the ghost bee, which was so absorbed in gnawing on the piece of meat, seemed to have no awareness of the movements of his hands at all.

So he became bolder.

He pulled out the branch directly, held it in his hand, walked to Fang Hongan, and adjusted the position of the piece of meat and the ghost wasp to an angle that was easy for Fang Hongan to handle.

After his hands were steady, Fang Hongan carefully pinched the slipknot and put it into the tail of the ghost-headed bee.

Then, continue to move upwards, through the abdomen, and when it reaches the thin limb connecting the waist and abdomen, release the hand holding the noose, and use the thumb and index finger to move downwards, pinch the long end of the thin cotton thread and gently pull it downwards.

As the knot was pulled, it began to slowly close.

Fang Hongan let go of his hands only after the noose was tied around the waist and abdomen. He looked at the ghost-headed bee who was still obsessed with the dried meat and let out a long sigh.

After eating, the ghost wasp has the habit of cutting food and bringing it back to the nest.

So, the next step is to continue waiting for this ghost wasp to cut the meat.

If you look closely at the "teeth" of the ghost wasp, they look like a pair of pliers, very sharp and with very strong cutting power.

It didn't take long for the wasp to cut a piece of meat of suitable size.

Then, it flapped its wings and flew up with a hum.

Although tied with cotton rope and feathers, both things were very light.

It also has no effect on its flying ability.

This ghost bee was completely unaware that it had been marked.

It flew happily towards the barren hills above the orchard.

"gone!"

Fang Hongan clapped his hands and called Wang Tong, and the two of them quickly followed the flying white dot in the sky...

(End of this chapter)