Xing'an Mountains 1984: Starting from climbing mountains to support the family

Chapter 31 Harvesting the Beehive (Seeking follow-up reading tomorrow)
Chen Weidong stood under the tree, looking at the beehive and considering how to harvest it.

He did not go closer to check. Although there were few bees moving outside the hive, they were not inactive.

If you go straight there without any precautions, you're asking for bee stings.

He won't do such a thing.

The entrance of the honeycomb is about as thick as an arm.
As long as you look carefully, you can directly see the beehive protected by a large group of wild bees inside, and it is no problem to reach the beehive with your hand.

At this height, if the hole can be made bigger with a knife, it will be very easy for Chen Weidong, who is 1.8 meters tall, to cut.

As for the attacks of these bees, Chen Weidong also has ways to deal with them. You know, bees are most afraid of smoke, and they will immediately flee and hide once they encounter smoke.

Therefore, when traditional beekeepers harvest honey, they will first light dried mugwort (also known as mugwort, fragrant mugwort, etc.) to drive the bees away from the honeycomb.
Then use a honey knife to cut the honey, but this method is very harmful to the bees and may cause the death of a large number of bees. It is purely an act of killing the goose that lays the eggs.

But Chen Weidong didn't care. Winter was approaching, and he would cut down all the honey bees. Even if they were not smoked, they would all starve to death.

It's death for these bees anyway!
Mugwort is very similar to the wild vegetable Artemisia selengensis sprouts in Northeast China. It is also a very common thing in the mountains and fields of Northeast China and can be easily found.

Mugwort is also known as Yang grass. It is usually used to make moxa sticks for moxibustion.
The smell emitted when burning is relatively strong. It is also smoke, but the smoke emitted by burning mugwort is better than that of ordinary grass.

Chen Weidong searched the hillside for a while and soon found some mugwort. He rolled the half-dry and half-wet mugwort together and put some easily ignited hay in the middle, which would produce more smoke.
Then, Chen Weidong took out a fire stick from his bag and lit the hay.

Suddenly, a pungent smoke came from the mugwort in Chen Weidong's hand.

Chen Weidong first took the wormwood to the entrance of the beehive, and as the smoke entered the beehive,

At that moment, the bees that were fumigated by the mugwort smoke were suddenly startled and kept flying out of the tree holes, dancing around the holes in panic. As more and more bees flew out, the sound gradually grew louder.

Although the smell of burning moxa is strong, bees are naturally protective of their nests.
It cannot be completely driven out immediately; it takes some time.

These bees have worked hard to collect a lot of honey and are ready to survive the long winter. Suddenly they are stimulated by the smoke, and the bees at this time are very easily irritated.

Seeing wisps of green smoke coming out from the exit and more and more bees flying around in an increasingly large area, Chen Weidong tactfully retreated to a farther place to observe.

They need to calm down a little after this stress response caused by strong stimulation.

Gradually, all the bees in the hive flew out, and then Chen Weidong immediately walked towards the cave entrance with a bunch of smoking mugwort.

Soon, the entire beehive was filled with smoke.

Chen Weidong walked towards the beehive with a sniper in hand. Although there were many bees flying around, they had almost lost their aggressiveness due to the smoke.

But if you want to take out the honeycomb from the tree hole, you need to enlarge the hole of the tree hole.

Chen Weidong picked up the knife and chopped at the entrance of the tree hole.

In order to be able to build nests for bees, the rough core of these trees had already rotted away. After a while, Chen Weidong and his men enlarged the openings of the tree holes.

Inside the hive.

There were still some wild bees protecting the honeycomb. Chen Weidong smoked them with smoke and most of them ran away. The remaining ones were not aggressive.
Chen Weidong was delighted when he saw the beehives. He could see with his naked eyes that there was a lot of honey in the beehives. After all, these bees also needed to store honey for the winter.
Chen Weidong did not plan to cut off the entire beehive, but left a small half.

It’s not that he has any sympathy for the bees, but he is considering the long term. After all, as long as he leaves some honey and prevents the bees from starving to death, he can come back to harvest the honey the next year.

If you can even find a few more beehives, you will have an endless supply of nectar in the future.

Chen Weidong looked at a large piece of honeycomb. He gently broke off a small piece of it and put it in his mouth to taste it. It was really sweet.
The little kid at home is in for a treat again.

Although Chen Weidong's method of digging out the beehive is a bit wild, it is completely destructive.

However, it was also the fastest. Soon Chen Weidong cut more than half of the honeycomb, but in the process of cutting the honeycomb, he was still accidentally stung by a bee.

He quickly picked it up along with the wormwood on the ground, then took the honeycomb and left. Because he had a cigarette in his hand, the bees outside did not dare to chase him.

After leaving, Chen Weidong felt a little pain in his hands, but it was not a big deal. After all, he went hunting in the mountains and spent too much time in the cold and gloomy weather, which made it easy for him to get rheumatism.

Gout and other annoying diseases may not be a big deal when you are young, but when they break out as you get older, it can be very painful.

It is good to be stung by bees occasionally, because bee venom is classified as fire poison according to Chinese medicine, which is yang and can neutralize yin, cold and dampness.

After working for about half an hour, Chen Weidong was very happy as he looked at the half of the beehive.
This thing is quite big, weighing probably five or six kilograms, and contains about two kilograms of honey. All these bees depend on it to survive the winter.

At this time, it was around three or four in the afternoon, and it would be around five when we got back.

On the road, passing by

A patch of woods!

It contains pecans, soft dates, hawthorns and other wild fruits.

But now Chen Weidong's hands are swollen.

I don't have the heart to go pick them anymore! I can only wait until next time to go into the mountains.

We entered the mountain at around five in the morning, and it was almost dark when we returned to the village.

As soon as I entered the yard, I saw Liu Xueting washing clothes in the yard.

Two little girls, Da Ni and Er Ni, were beating the dried Thousand Layer Sole with wooden sticks.

Sanni was holding Liuni, while Sini and Wuni, two little girls, were lying on the chairs. They were unable to help.

I watched it carefully, and saw its little butt swaying left and right, so adorable and pink.

The sound of Chen Weidong entering the door startled the little ones in the yard.

"dad!"

"Dad, you're back!"

"..."

The older daughters greeted them politely.

"Yeah!"

Liu Ni also cried out twice following her milk.

When Si Ni and Wu Ni found that their father had returned, they happily climbed down from the chairs and ran towards Chen Weidong with their short legs.

They are both young and are the closest to him.

Chen Weidong looked at the two little ones who rushed over excitedly, then he smiled, freed one hand and rubbed his daughters' heads.

"You two, did you listen to your mother at home?"

(End of this chapter)