Chapter 384 Gift of Bees
When it comes to beekeeping, Zhang An immediately remembered who Old Man Qian was.
When Zhang An first started keeping bees, he wanted to ask someone.
After asking around a lot, I found out that there was indeed a beekeeper nearby, the old man Qian from Xiahewan.
No way, there are too few beekeepers now.
Although Old Man Qian only kept two buckets of bees, he had been keeping them for many years, so he was definitely more familiar with them than Zhang An, who knew nothing about them.
So Zhang An had gone to Xiahewan Village to look for money from an old man before.
But unfortunately, I went at the wrong time. Mr. Qian was not at home and went out to visit relatives.
After he came back, he happened to meet the uncle who taught him how to keep bees, so Zhang An never went to see Old Man Qian again.
Although Zhang An went to look for him last time, he didn’t see anyone, so Zhang An didn’t recognize him today.
"Uncle Qian's bees are all freezing to death? Haven't you added partitions to the bee bucket to keep warm?"
Preventing cold and warmth in winter is a task that every beekeeper must do.
In generally not too cold years, you only need to keep enough honeycombs so that there are more bees than spleens.
This is the dense clump heating and insulation method of bees, allowing them to huddle together to stay warm.
This method would rather crowd the bees than allow more spleens in the hive. Otherwise, the bee colony will be too small and there will be no effect.
But it cannot be used in years that are too powerful, such as last winter, and the way to keep warm is to add more partitions in the beehive, and then add some insulation items outside the partitions.
For example, old clothes and rags. If the winter is too cold, you may have to cover them with old quilts.
But in this era, everyone’s conditions are not that good.
In the mountains, old clothes can be worn for several years even if they are mended and mended. They will not be used to make other clothes until they are no longer worn out.
For example, collect them and make them into rag quilts, or use them as rags, cut out the good parts and continue to mend them on other clothes. Anyway, there will be no waste.
Don't even think about old quilts. Most people have them as inherent assets.
As long as it can still be covered, it will not be discarded. If there are big holes everywhere and it can no longer be covered, it will be used to make a bed.
So the most common things people use to cover beehives are linen bags.
Cover it up in the winter and you can take it down and use it next spring.
Of course, Zhang An didn’t ask why he didn’t move the beehives home.
Let’s just say that Old Man Qian’s house has only one room, and the coal stove and stove are all at home.
Moving the beehives home, it is estimated that the bees will die faster than outside. The smell of soot or firewood smoke is too deadly to them.
“Partitions were also added, and several linen sacks were covered on the outside, and a thick layer of grain grass was placed on the outside. But the snow last year was too heavy, and they still couldn’t survive it. Lu Dacheng from Baiyan Town , There are more bees in his house, and he still has a quilt, but they are basically all dead, and the remaining ones will be gone by the beginning of this spring.”
As expected, the old man Qian used a linen bag, but he didn’t. There is no lack of experience either, and straw is added.
After all, they have experienced particularly cold winters before, and this is how they got there.
But Zhang An didn't expect that doing this would actually freeze the bees in the beehive to death.
Moreover, Old Man Qian also talked about Lu Dacheng, a man Zhang An knew, who was the one who told him how to keep bees.
Even his family’s bees froze to death so many, other people’s bees might not be spared either.
The reason why bees froze to death this year has nothing to do with keeping warm.
Because his old man is the best beekeeper Zhang An has ever seen, there is no way he can't do all these tasks well.
The most likely reason is that it was too cold during the snowy days last winter.
At this time, Zhang An discovered that the bees from his own space seemed quite powerful.
Zhang An normally added layers to keep the boxes in the backyard warm, and Zhang Jianguo carried them back to the utility room before it started to snow, so not a single bee died.
As for the old house, because Zhang An had forgotten about it, he didn’t care about anything.
In this way, some of the bees were frozen to death, and many of the bees were too old to survive.
In fact, Zhang An didn't know that it was for this reason that Old Man Qian came to him to divide the bees.
Beekeeping will attract bees. Although there are no bees at home, there are many bees in the wild.
Going to the mountains and attracting one or two boxes of bees is nothing for Old Man Qian.
“So I heard that your bees are easy to raise and are not afraid of the cold, so I wanted to come to you and buy a box to raise.”
Old man Qian did start by hearing from others. I learned that there were still a lot of bees in Zhang An’s house this year, and there was no sign of them freezing to death.
After all, the bee swarms in Zhang An’s backyard have been flying out in groups since the beginning of spring, and there is no sign of any reduction in numbers. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that.
But Old Man Qian didn’t believe it at first, because he knew that for people who kept bees, the bees were almost frozen to death.
But whether he believed it or not, he still came to Changqing to visit for a few days.
He didn't believe it until he saw the bees in Zhang An's backyard, flying in groups every day to the orchard in the back mountain to collect honey.
After all, if you freeze to death, you won't be able to recover so quickly. Although bees reproduce quickly, they are not that fast.
This made him feel that Zhang An's bees were different from the local bees they raised before.
After all, bees that can withstand freezing in winter are the favorite species of every beekeeper.
And after several days of observation, he found that Zhang An's bee was indeed better than other bees.
That’s why Old Man Qian made up his mind to come over to Zhang An to share a box with him and raise it, even if he had to spend more to buy some.
"Just buy it. Since Uncle Qian came here specifically, why shouldn't I not give it to you? I'll just take a box back when I leave."
Old man Qian thought. To divide the bees, Zhang An agreed after thinking about it. After all, he asked Zhang Jianwen to bring him here.
Not to mention the fine tradition of respecting the elderly and loving the young, Zhang An will also give face to his old uncle Zhang Jianwen.
Although the current bees can be worth twenty or thirty yuan per box, the better ones may be fifty.
The space bees in Zhang An's house are much better than those outside. If you meet someone who knows the goods, you can sell them for a hundred without any problem.
But Zhang An didn't want to collect money from the old man. After all, he didn't lack hundreds of dollars.
It's better to treat it as a favor to old man Qian, and keep it nearby in case there is a need to find someone else's place in the future.
After all, a favor worth a hundred dollars is not an ordinary small favor for Old Man Qian.
"How can this be done? It's a rule to give money to the bees."
When old man Qian heard Zhang An say that he would give him a box without money, he thought Zhang An was being polite, so he became polite too. .
After all, Zhang An can say polite words, but he can't take it for granted, otherwise others will say that he doesn't know how to behave.
"The bees of yours are definitely not worth the money, but you can take them first, and I will send you two cans when the honey comes out."
The old man even paid for this. He took out a crumpled fifty yuan sheet and handed it to Zhang An. After raising bees for so many years, he would not be able to recognize this bee, but he did not have much money.
But I also said that I would give Zhang An two more cans of bees later, which is worth a lot of money.
A jar of honey usually weighs two kilograms, and two jars cost more than fifty or sixty yuan. This is the price of ordinary honey, and good ones will be more expensive.
After all this calculation, it was more than one hundred yuan, and Old Man Qian really wanted to buy it.
“Okay, Uncle Qian, I have a lot of bees in my house, and there will be a batch that will be separated out in a few days. I have a headache. Anyway, it’s just a box of bees, just take it.”
Recently, Zhang An discovered that new queen bees were bred on the thrones of several beehives.
Zhang An is reluctant to get rid of them, so when the new queen bee comes out, it is imperative to separate the bees.
Otherwise, if he has so many bees, if they all disappear due to bee-scattering fever, it will be a waste.
Although there are still many bees in the space, you can continue to lure them out.
He has been raising this batch of bees for two years. They not only work hard to collect honey for him, but also look after his home and care for his home. It would be a lie to say that they have no feelings.
Although dividing the bees is troublesome, once the bees are divided, there will be more bees in the house.
"Then I, an old man, will accept your son's love."
Old man Qian is not good at these kinds of favors, so he said a few polite words to Zhang An and stopped insisting.
This sentence also means that he recorded Zhang An's favor.
Such people often value favors.
Then Zhang An took him to the backyard to select bees, but unfortunately, all the bees flew out of several boxes and few were in the boxes.
Having no other choice, Zhang An took Old Man Qian to the old house to look at the other two boxes.
The result was okay. In the box where half the bees were frozen to death, there were still quite a few bees in the nest.
At that moment, Zhang An gave the box of bees to Old Man Qian.
Old man Qian was very happy. Although this was only half a box, the bee colony was much larger than the entire box he had raised before.
If there is an extra queen bee on the throne, it can be divided into two boxes at any time.
After sending Old Man Qian away, Uncle Zhang Jianwen did not leave.
“Zhang An, your bees are much better than those they raise, right?”
Seeing how happy Old Man Qian was before leaving, and his cheerful expression when he gave the money just now, Zhang Jianwen knew that Zhang An was definitely not a simple person.
“It is indeed much better than those bees outside, and not only the bees are better, the honey produced is also much better.”
There are no outsiders here, Zhang An said He was no longer so modest when he spoke.
Besides, what he said was not a lie. Although he is not the best in bee breeding now, he can at least be ranked at the front.
“By the way, uncle, you haven’t tasted my honey yet, so I’ll give you some to try.”
Although Zhang Jianwen came to Zhang An’s house many times, coming over Most of them drink alcohol, and he has never tried this honey.
Although he refused, Zhang An still poured him a small cup and then a glass of warm water.
“This bee sugar is quite delicious. It’s sweet and has a little sour taste. It’s not as cloying as other bee sugar. I feel a lot more relaxed after drinking it.”
Not to mention honey, just other sweet things, who wouldn’t like them now.
Although they are sold on the streets, few people buy them in rural areas because they cost money and are too expensive.
But even so, everyone has tasted it more or less. Not to mention that there are many wild bees in the mountains, there must be wild honey.
Just say that on many roadside reed poles or wormwood poles, as long as bees appear and there are bumps, you can find native honey.
When Zhang An and the others were young, they liked to find reed or wormwood stalks like this, break them off and smoke them directly.
Zhang Jianwen just took a small sip and felt that it tasted very good. After finishing the drink, he felt different.
Although I didn't feel any physical discomfort before, I was still a little sore and swollen after working hard, but after drinking the honey water given by Zhang An, I obviously felt relaxed.
"That's right, this honey can relieve fatigue. When you are tired from work, drink a glass of honey water, you will feel a lot more relaxed, and it can also replenish your blood."
Before, Su Ying also said When I was not pregnant, I was very weak during those days and my face was very pale and lacked any color.
Hemorrhagic disease naturally requires blood replenishment. Zhang An has tried stewed eggs with angelica and stewed jujubes with brown sugar.
Although they are all effective, the most effective one is their honey mixed with warm water. It takes effect immediately after drinking it, and it is not troublesome.
"Uncle, you have been busy here and there in the past year, so you must be tired. Take a bottle with you when you go back later, and drink a little every day. It will be good for your health."
"Okay, but don't make it too much. A little bit of this can be mixed with a large glass of water. If you drink too much, it will be easy to let it go."
Haping means spoiled, lard or lard Honey cannot be stored well and will taste bad if kept for a long time. Rural people call it ha.
Zhang Jianwen did not refuse Zhang An's kindness. Anyway, Zhang An would give his family a portion of whatever food he had here. He had long been used to it.
“But Zhang An, your honey is so good, it should be more expensive than other honey.”
Other honey can weigh 20 to 31 pounds. Zhang Jianwen of Zhang An’s family thinks he can sell more.
“Last time, a city man came here to buy it and paid eighty yuan a pound.”
Last time, a city man was stung by a bee and came to Zhang An’s house to look for it. I rubbed it with honey and took a sip, and I fell in love with this honey.
Finally, he begged Wang Fang to sell some to him. Initially, he paid 50 yuan per catty. The price was twice that of other honeys. Wang Fang was a little stunned.
But when the man saw that Wang Fang was silent, he thought that Wang Fang thought the price was low, so he increased the price to eighty. In the end, Wang Fang readily sold him five kilograms.
It was precisely because of that person’s promotion that someone later came to Zhang An’s house to buy honey.
Although Zhang An didn't intend to specialize in selling honey, if someone came to the door, it wouldn't cost him anything. Of course, he wouldn't stop doing this business.
Anyway, not counting those in the space, the few boxes of bees at home provide him with a lot of bees every year, so he keeps them there.
"What, eighty-one pounds? It can be sold at such a high price, why don't you raise more bees?"
Although Zhang Jianwen thought that this honey would be slightly more expensive, he didn't expect that it would be more expensive. It's so expensive, one pound is worth three pounds.
"Uncle, look at my large orchard, fish pond, and so many other things, how can I find the energy to do this?"
"Come on, you You sit or lie down every day, and I don’t see you busy with anything.”
In the past, Zhang Jianwen might have taken it seriously. After all, Zhang An’s plate was indeed not small.
In the past two years, Zhang Jianwen has seen through Zhang An's rhetoric. Where he is busy, he is clearly lazy.
Seeing Zhang Jianwen exposing himself mercilessly, Zhang An did not refute, but smiled on his face.
(End of this chapter)