The happy little days of the Ye family

After breakfast, my cousin took the two of them to the hive.

My cousin brought out a newly made beehive and said, "The first step in beekeeping is to learn to attract bees, which is to let the bees settle in the beehive you made."

My cousin took a piece of beeswax and spread it evenly in the beehive, and then spread some honey on it. “Rub beeswax and honey into the hive to attract the bees to make their home here.”

"If you want to attract enough bees quickly, you can light the beeswax or old beehives on fire, so that the smell will spread faster and attract more bees."

Father Ye asked curiously: "After attracting the bees, will the bees go away in the future?"

"Bees are just like people. They collect a lot of honey in the spring and the food for the bees is good. Many new bees will be born. If the original hive cannot be accommodated, they will divide some of the bees and build a new hive. As long as there is a nearby place where you place the beehive. Enough flowers and they won’t run away.”

"It's like dividing a family." Father Ye understood immediately.

The cousin's uncle took the new beehive and led the two of them to the sunflower field at the foot of the mountain.

"The beehive used to attract bees must be placed in a place with many flowers. The sunflowers are blooming just right, and there are many bees collecting nectar here every day. It is suitable to place the beehive here."

My cousin took out a small piece of beeswax from his pocket and lit it. After a while, a lot of bees flew in, and several of them had already gotten into the new beehive.

Ye Qiushi: "Cousin, there are already several beehives in the sunflower field. If we add new beehives, there will be more bees in the future. Will there not be enough flowers for them to collect nectar?"

Cousin uncle: "This place is close to the mountains. If there are not enough flowers nearby, they will go to the mountains to pick other flowers."

"The hill my family bought is about the same size as this mountain. How many beehives can be placed on the hill?" Ye's father is very interested in beekeeping.

"This mainly depends on how many flowers there are on the mountain. Generally, it is best not to have more than four beehives on a mountain that has not been specially maintained for beekeeping. If it is full of fruit trees, you can put about ten beehives."

"But my mountain has more than ten beehives." My cousin was very proud.

Father Ye was very curious, "If it were like my cousin's mountain, with endless flowers all year round, how many beehives could be placed there?"

"Not many, just over 30."

Father Ye and Ye Qiushi looked at their cousin with admiration.

My cousin was embarrassed by both of them, "If you want to produce more honey, you can also plant more rapeseed, osmanthus, duck foot tree and sunflower."

After placing the beehives, my uncle took the two of them up the mountain. My uncle introduced to them one by one what kinds of things were planted on the mountain, distinguishing them according to the four seasons of the year, and which flowers were available in each season.

Father Ye felt that the tuition fee of three taels of silver was too little. These sects had more than three taels of silver.

If you keep bees well, you can earn at least several taels of silver a year.

In fact, if ordinary people come to learn beekeeping, my cousin will not teach so much. But because he and Ye Qiushi are related, Ye’s father will be in trouble, and Taohua Village is really far away from here, so he teaches more. .

After lunch, Uncle Ye took the two of them to the hive to harvest honey.

"You must cut honey when the weather is good. Bees will not be so aggressive when the weather is good. You must not cut honey when it is cloudy or rainy, otherwise the bees will chase you."

This is all my cousin’s experience in beekeeping for many years. I think he was often chased by bees back then.

Father Ye and Ye Qiushi nodded at the same time, remembering it in their hearts.

"There are a lot of flowers here, so I harvest honey basically once every season. When harvesting honey, you can't harvest all the honey. You have to leave some food for them."

Father Ye: "Cousin, how much of this honey should I keep?"

My cousin took a bundle of half-dried mugwort, lit it, and placed it under one of the beehives.

A lot of smoke smoked out the bees. When no more bees came out, my cousin opened the lid of the beehive.

The cousin took a sickle and carefully cut out two-thirds of the hive. "You should set aside one-third of the honey in spring, summer and autumn, and at least half of the honey in winter when there are fewer flowers."

The uncle told the two of them some things to pay attention to, saying that all the things to be taught had been taught.

In the evening, Ye's father and Ye Qiushi each took out a tael of silver, went to their cousin, and said they wanted to buy a few kilograms of honey and beeswax to attract the bees.

"I have already collected your tuition fees, how can I have the nerve to still charge your money?" My cousin refused to take it.

Father Ye put the silver into the hands of his cousin, "My cousin's craftsmanship is far more than these three taels of silver. This silver should be regarded as our filial piety to you."

Seeing that the two of them had given the money honestly, my cousin happily accepted it, "Okay, okay, then I'll accept it shamelessly."

Then they packed seven or eight kilograms of honey and several kilograms of beeswax for each of them, and found several old beehives.

He also warned: "It is best to attract bees in the morning when the weather is good. Apply beeswax and honey to the inside of the beehive, and then place the beehive where there are many flowers and bees."

"The beehive must be covered by something and cannot be directly exposed to rain. Finally, the old beehive or beeswax must be lit to attract the bees. If everything goes well, the bee attracting can be completed on the same day."

Early the next morning, the two drove the donkey cart back to Taohua Village.

When Father Ye returned home, he was warmly welcomed by the whole family. The whole family gathered around Father Ye and listened to him talk about how to keep bees.

The first step is to make a beehive. A beehive is actually a wooden box. It doesn’t matter whether it looks good or not. Father Ye plans to make it himself.

Father Ye and Mr. Ye completed several beehives in less than half a day.

Early the next morning, Father Ye took the whole family to attract bees.

Father Ye spread beeswax and honey into several beehives.

"Is it that simple?" Mrs. Ye looked at Father Ye with disbelief.

Not to mention that Mrs. Ye didn't believe it, the others also looked like you were lying to me, and only the youngest Ye Xilin believed in Father Ye.

Father Ye said helplessly: "It's that simple, just put the beehive where there are more flowers, and then light the old beehive or beeswax to attract the honey."

Ye Mu: “Where should these sealed boxes be placed?”

Father Ye: "Anywhere with many flowers is fine."

"There are two jujube trees in the backyard. The jujube flowers are blooming just right. The pomegranate tree in the front yard is also in bloom. Can we keep bees at home?" Ye Qingqing looked at her father excitedly.

Father Ye: "You can keep bees at home, as long as there are enough flowers. Every household in the village has fruit trees in their yards, so there should be no shortage of flowers."

After several considerations, Ye’s father finally placed a beehive under the jujube tree in the backyard, and then lit a small piece of beeswax. It didn’t take long for bees to enter the beehive.

After the beeswax was burned, twenty or thirty bees entered the beehive. Now no one questioned Father Ye anymore.

Father Ye is going to take the remaining four beehives to Xiaohoushan.