My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 370 Luring Bees
More than half a month has passed in the third month of the lunar calendar, and Chen Ling's ox has finally arrived. When Lao Ba came to Chenwangzhuang Reservoir to burn incense and worship the Turtle King, he personally led it to him.

There were three animals in total, one male and two females, and the average price was just over a thousand. Chen Ling happily gave the money to Lao Ba, and at noon he stayed at the farm for a drink before letting him leave.

The fact that he could bring a cow home without paying anyone shows the credibility of Old Ba, the mule and horse broker.

Of course, he dared to make this decision on behalf of his master because he knew Chen Ling's temperament and that Chen Ling wouldn't haggle over prices like some people do, focusing on petty gains.

He's very willing to pay for anything he wants, as Old Ba witnessed when he took him to Erwazi's house to buy sheep.

So, after finding a cow for Chen Ling, Lao Ba didn't even charge him a brokerage fee. After having a meal and drinks at the farm, he returned to his hometown satisfied.

Before I got to know Chen Ling well, I just thought he was a young man who didn't know anything and was just messing around.

This visit to the farm was truly eye-opening. The poultry and livestock were raised exceptionally well; each one was tall, plump, and had smooth fur. Even a layman could tell they were raised extremely well.

Chen Ling has recently gained new insights into the effects of the spiritual water.

He realized that his farm and orchard had formed a small food chain, capable of a complete ecological cycle.

Plants absorb spiritual energy from the soil and water, grow luxuriantly, and are then eaten by animals, who in turn absorb spiritual energy from them. The animals' excrement is decomposed and incorporated into the soil, making it more fertile.

This is a virtuous cycle of the ecosystem.

In addition, the winds that blow throughout the year and the bees and butterflies spread pollen and seeds.

This has a far more profound impact than the leakage of sacred water.

It is foreseeable that this virtuous cycle will not be limited to the small circle of farms and orchards in the future.

This small circle will continue to expand.

From the farm, it radiates to the village, and then continues to spread outwards, reaching the vast mountains and beyond...

"Yes, this process will be very slow, but it is safe and reliable. Moreover, it can alleviate the problem as environmental pollution worsens in the future... In any case, it will benefit the local area."

Chen Ling settled the three yellow oxen in the livestock shed and thought to himself.

The afternoon sun was shining brightly, and he strolled back to the farm, intending to go up the mountain to check if any bees had built nests in the empty beehives used for attracting bees.

In early spring, bees that have just finished overwintering are relatively weak and it takes some time for the bee colony to gradually grow stronger.

Now that more than half of the third month of the lunar calendar has passed, the native honeybees are gradually beginning to swarm.

It's the perfect time to set up beehives to attract bees.

Chen Ling didn't care when the bees would start swarming, nor did he try to calculate the exact time. He simply put some honey from the cave into several beehives on the mountain to attract wild bees to build nests.

Chen Sangui built ten beehives for them this year. Chen Ling didn't plan to raise that many in the first year; he only planned to raise five hives at most. If these bee colonies start swarming later, that would be a different story. This can be considered as preparing new beehives for them in advance.

Keeping bees at home means you can enjoy honey anytime, and it's also convenient for making your own mead.

We walked up the mountain to the north.

The sun was shining warmly, and small groups of chickens were foraging for food in the woods. Little Jin and a few foxes were lazily sunbathing on a rock. When they saw Chen Ling coming up the mountain, they wagged their tails and happily came to greet him.

The foxes were also jumping around, much like Xiao Jin, with their eyes squinted, their big tails swaying, leaping left and right, rubbing against Chen Ling's legs, extremely excited.

"Okay, stop fooling around, you're getting all my fur all over me."

Chen Ling helplessly pushed them away. The four foxes were quite fat now, and they and Little Gold were clinging to his legs, making it impossible for him to take a step forward.

"Look how fat you are. If you weren't here, you would definitely have been caught and eaten by wild animals in the mountains."

There are many birds near the farm. They have no shortage of food and do not need to be cared for or fed by people. They can eat until their bellies are full every day by hunting for themselves. In particular, the three little foxes are plump and juicy in just over half a year, with glossy fur all over their bodies.

They have no shortage of food, and since they play with Xiao Jin all day long, they often follow Xiao Jin up and down the mountain to guard the chickens and ducks.

They can be considered as free laborers who don't need to be fed or cared for by their own family.

Seeing the foxes, after he pushed them away, still whimpering and circling around him, Chen Ling couldn't help but smile. He thought to himself, "No wonder they can play with Little Gold and Little White Cow. It's only because they're reproductively isolated from dogs that I could raise them as dogs and pair them up with Blackie."

He then waved and led a dog and four foxes up the mountain to check the condition of the beehives scattered in several places.

The beehives were only brought over yesterday afternoon.

A day and a night passed, and all five beehives were now filled with bees building nests.

"The honey from Dongtian is really amazing; its allure is just too strong."

Chen Ling walked around and saw that each beehive was buzzing with bees. Satisfied, he thought to himself, "I'll leave these five beehives for now. Once these bees have finished building their nests, I'll slowly take the bees from the cave out..."

Some of the bees in the cave are used to cultivate new varieties.

Some were originally intended to be raised as pets.

For example, the nests that Chen Ling built in the abandoned iron barrel.

Chen Ling often took out buckets to release the bees.

It's not too late to take them out and keep them on the farm once the bees in these five hives are established.

After walking around the mountain, all that was left outside the farm was a group of puppies running around, scrambling and playing with stones in their mouths.

In the afternoon, Wang Susu and her son were seeing patients at the village pharmacy. Heiwa went to play with Ruirui. After setting up their stall, her father-in-law and mother-in-law prepared food for the film crew for the evening. There was no one at the farm.

Chen Ling went back and lay in the yard reading a magazine for a while. Suddenly, he noticed that the flowers and plants in the house were growing vigorously, but they were growing wildly and messily, which was too chaotic.

He took out his scissors and squatted down in the yard to trim the branches and leaves of the flowers and plants.

Aesthetics are one aspect.

In addition, Chen Ling would also pinch off any small flower buds that swelled up among the branches and leaves of some flowers and plants if there were too many.

It's like pinching off the top of a crop.

Pinch off some of the small flower buds, and the flowers will bloom more beautifully.

Chen Ling was tending to the flowers and plants when, after a while, she heard voices and barking from outside the farm. The dogs weren't barking fiercely. It was the return of several main actors from the film crew, along with Zhou Weijun and Yu Qi'an.

Yu Qi'an walked in whistling and headed straight for the corridor, towards the two rows of birdcages hanging there.

The men and women of the film crew, along with Zhou Weijun and Ma Wei, walked over to Chen Ling's side. Watching him trim the flowers and plants, they smiled and said, "Fugui, what brings you to such a leisurely mood today?"

"Haha, I just saw that these flowers are about to bloom, so I tidied them up to make them look even better."

At this moment, Yu Qi'an picked up a birdcage, whistling as he came over, "Hey, nicely trimmed. You know how to arrange flowers, don't you? If you don't, I'll teach you. I'll arrange some in the living room for you, it'll look beautiful."

"Sure, teach me."

Chen Ling slowly stood up, and smiled and nodded to the people behind Zhou Weijun as a greeting.

Then everyone headed towards the living room. The crew rarely went to Chen Ling's living room; they usually just went to the wooden building to wash up and rest, and ate their meals in the village.

I had nothing much to do today, so I came back a little early. I went with Chen Ling, the host, to the living room to rest, have some tea, and watch TV for a while. That was nice.

"Wow, this bird's nest really is stacked into a gourd shape."

Upon entering the living room, Yu Qi'an exclaimed in surprise at the beam above the center of the room.

Zhou Weijun and Ma Wei also stared wide-eyed in surprise, "Good heavens, this really is a den of monsters."

They initially took it as a story, but they never expected that a gourd would be placed on the living room table, and that the swallows had actually built their nest in the shape of a gourd.

Chen Ling looked up and said, "Yes, it's been built for a long time, and I bet the eggs are already hatching inside. It's warm now."

The others looked confused as they listened to their conversation, so the chubby director quickly asked what was going on.

Yu Qi'an pointed at the bird's nest and the gourd and started shouting, telling him about the swallow and the bird's nest.

The group of people were amazed after hearing this, craning their necks to look at it intently.

One actress even stood on tiptoe to peek into the bird's nest, trying to see if any eggs were hatching. Unfortunately, she couldn't see clearly and finally said disappointedly, "The opening of the bird's nest is like the mouth of a gourd; it's too narrow and small to see what's inside."

Chen Ling turned on the TV, poured them tea and water, and laughed when he heard this: "This kind of nest is to protect the newly hatched swallows from falling out. The nest of the grass swallow is about half a bowl in size, with a large opening, which makes it easiest for the newly hatched swallows to fall out."

"Oh, I even learned about swallows building their nests in class." The actress sat down, smiled at Chen Ling, revealing two shallow dimples, and said playfully.

Then, seeing the tea that Chen Ling had poured for them, they asked curiously, "Brother Chen, what kind of tea is this? It's so strong after just one brew."

The tea leaves in the cup looked like individual leaves, and the tea was dark and very strong.

"This isn't really tea; it's a medicinal herb. It's the leaves of Eucommia ulmoides. We dried a lot of it before the New Year, and my family usually brews it like tea."

Chen Ling's words made Yu Qi'an and the others pick up their cups and look inside: "Are these Eucommia ulmoides leaves? I was wondering why the leaves were so big when I drank your tea last time. Is it okay to drink too much of this?"

"It's nothing, it's good for the liver and kidneys," Chen Ling said with a smile.

Upon hearing his words, the men immediately grabbed their teacups and began to gulp down their tea.

After drinking it, I felt that the tea made from Eucommia leaves was slightly bitter at first, and it did have a tea flavor, but after drinking it, I felt a refreshing sensation.

"Not bad, the taste is very good."

"Do you still have any Fugui? We'll buy some before we leave."

"Why buy this stuff? You can just go to the mountains and pick it when you have time. After you pick it, dry it in the sun and you can make tea."

Chen Ling didn't try to fob them off. Eucommia leaves were very easy to handle; it was just that they hadn't drunk them much before, only starting to drink them as tea after his father-in-law and mother-in-law came.

Local villagers still mostly grow wild tea, such as dandelion root, selfheal, and dried thorn buds.

It's generally used to clear heat and reduce internal fire.

"Okay, that works too."

"We've been waiting for the boat to be completed these past two days. The little bamboo house was built a long time ago. Before filming starts, there's nothing else to do, so we'll go to the mountains to pick some tea leaves, dry them, and make tea."

Everyone nodded.

Yu Qi'an then pulled Chen Ling aside and asked him when he would go let the hunting dogs out again.

This made everyone burst into laughter.

This guy can't forget about this when he's free.

It really does prove the old saying: "Once you learn to chase a rabbit like a dog, you're on a one-way street."

Hunting can be addictive.

Especially for those who have good dogs, they feel restless and uncomfortable if they don't go into the mountains for a while.

“These past few days have been really tough. My salted eggs are being hauled away tonight, and after that, there are fish to be taken away. Also, a friend of mine from the city is coming to our area to plant utility poles and replace a transformer, so I have to entertain him.”

Chen Lingchong smiled at Yu Qi'an: "But don't worry, my brother here also loves this kind of thing, and he even has a dog. Once he's done with his business, we'll have plenty of time to play."

Yu Qi'an's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh, praising it repeatedly.

That night, the group of them really had nothing to do, especially Zhou Weijun and his two companions, who had explored the surrounding area thoroughly and had done all the fun things they wanted to do.

So when the little scooter drove up to pick up the salted egg.

The group helped Chen Ling by putting straw on the car, moving eggs, and other things, working busily and enthusiastically.

It would take at least two days for a little sheep to go to the city and back.

I need to rest when I get back.

When I went again, it was four or five days later.

At that time, Chen Ling's ornamental fish will have to be sold, right?

As for Chen Ling saying he was busy, he wasn't just making things up.

He still needs to go to the market in the countryside to buy some chickens and ducks to expand his family's business.

The main problem is that there are too many dogs nowadays, so chickens and ducks are a piece of cake for them. It's a waste of their talents to have them guarding the fields.

Then let's raise more.

……

In the morning, Wang Cunye heard that Chen Ling was going to the market to buy chickens and ducks, so he asked Chen Ling to deliver them to Wang Zhenzhen and give him the money he had earned from selling chickens and ducks over the past few days so that he could use it to buy more.

Chen Ling couldn't possibly accept this money, and quickly pushed it away: "Dad, don't give me this money. Keep the money you earned for Zhenzhen to buy food."

Seeing that the old man was about to hand it over, Chen Ling said, "The crew members have extended their stay at our house again. They'll probably stay for more than a month. We've already paid quite a bit for their accommodation. We're not short of money at home. We haven't even given you any money yet, Dad. Please don't give us any more."

"Hey, your mother and I didn't spend any money. It was really you who paid for our food, clothing, and tuition..." Wang Cunye said with a wry smile.

"Dad, why are you bringing this up? Take the money back." Wang Susu frowned, no longer caring about feeding her son.

Susu is usually gentle, so it's rare for her to talk to him like this.

Seeing that his eldest daughter was unhappy, the old man quickly stuffed the money he was holding into his pocket and said repeatedly, "Oh, okay, okay, I'll take it back, I'll take it back."

Wang Zhenzhen, watching from the side, kept trying not to laugh.

Chen Ling glared at her, then went to the backyard of the farm to drive the tractor.

(End of this chapter)