Zhou Huaian squatted by the ditch and washed his hands, "It's still cooler in the mountains."
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "It's so cool in the forest farm that Xuejiao has to wear a coat when she gets up in the morning."
Zhou Huaian wiped his hands on his body, raised his hand and looked at the time, "It's almost eleven o'clock, and I have harvested two kilograms of honey, and picked ten kilograms of chicken mushrooms and mushrooms."
"Even if we can't find that nest of wild bees, there are so many flowers here that we can easily find a few nests of wild bees."
"That's right!" Zhou Huaian began to observe the little bees. After a while, he pulled Zhou Ding and said, "I see. This is the nest of wild bees that we found under the cliff above last time. Let's go and take a look."
"Okay!" Zhou Yiding waved to Dahuang, and it ran forward first.
Suddenly, Da Huang, who was walking in front, stopped walking, turned around and stared at the other side of the ditch. The hair on his head and neck stood up all of a sudden, "Woof woof~Woof woof..."
Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding stopped immediately, turned around, picked up the rifles on their backs, stretched out their hands to signal, and looked carefully at the forest opposite.
The two thought it must be a big wild animal, otherwise Dahuang would have rushed up long ago.
Then another howl came from the woods opposite!
Zhou Yiding and Zhou Huaian walked forward a few steps with their rifles and came to the side of Dahuang who was staring at the bushes. They looked in the direction it was staring at and saw the woods on the opposite slope shaking, as if something was fleeing downwards.
“Woo…Woo…Woo…Woof woof…” Dahuang put his front paws on the ground, his fur still standing upright, and barked wildly at the woods as if he was facing a great enemy.
"Woof woof..." Bursts of dog barking were heard from the woods.
Zhou Huaian looked at Zhou Yiding in surprise, "Fuck~ Someone went hunting in the old forest?"
Zhou Yiding nodded, "Maybe the hunter went in."
"Could it be that he is chasing some wild animal?"
"It's the old bear!"
Before Zhou Yiding finished his words, the two men saw a big black bear staggering down the slope, followed closely by two hunting dogs, which would rush up and bite it from time to time.
"Fuck~" Zhou Huaian exclaimed when he saw the black bear rushing towards him, "Someone really went to the old forest to hunt the old bear. Someone really doesn't care about his life for money!"
Zhou Yiding held his gun and looked at the injured old bear vigilantly, "The old bear is already injured. You can see it staggering and can't even walk steadily. Most likely its legs were broken by the gun. It may have run down the mountain because of its injured hind legs, otherwise it would have run into the woods long ago."
Zhou Huaian also raised his gun and said in a deep voice: "Come over and shoot it."
Suddenly, two gunshots were heard from the opposite side. The black bear fell to the ground howling and rolled to the side of the ditch.
Zhou Huaian saw two sturdy men, one holding a musket and the other holding a rifle, chasing after him and firing another shot at the black bear.
Looking at their agile movements, I felt that this was how hunting was done. They were not like them who could only find wild animals on the edge of the woods.
Zhou Yiding looked at the two men and shouted excitedly, "Hey! Brothers, where are you from? You are so brave that you even dare to break into the old forest!"
The younger man said, "We are from the construction team. Where are you from?"
"We are from Fu Niu!" Zhou Yiding looked at the bags the two were carrying, "You are really amazing. We didn't dare to go over there."
The older one looked at the two of them with some pride, and said with a smile: "This old forest is not as scary as you think. Just be careful when you go in." After saying that, he took out a knife and started to cut the bear's gall.
The younger ones also squatted down to help and ignored the two of them.
Zhou Huaian and his companions thought there was nothing interesting to see, so they walked towards the rock with their dog. "Look, they dared to go into the forest and hunt bears with only a musket and a rifle. They are too brave!"
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Why don't you think about it, you can sell a bear for thousands of dollars if you kill it. What else can you do to make money so quickly?"
"For an old farmer with no connections, this is the only way to make money the fastest!" Zhou Huaian thought of the past and sighed, "If your sister-in-law hadn't found a way to make money, my family might have gone to the woods like them."
"You are lucky to have a good wife!" Zhou Yiding said with a smile and patted him, "Otherwise, with your skills, you would have to be given a machine gun to hunt in the forest!"
"..." Zhou Huaian rolled his eyes at him and strode towards the rock.
Two hunters on the opposite side of the ditch took the bear's gallbladder, took out a rope to tie up the big black bear, cut a wooden stick and carried it across the ditch.'
The two men looked at Zhou Huaian and his companion who had reached halfway up the slope, carrying the prey and climbing up the mountain.
Zhou Huaian and the other man who were standing on the slope saw them leave, then they walked towards the cliff. When they got down, they saw three nests of wild bees hanging on the cliff, and the huge honey combs were full of black wild bees.
"Oh my god, I didn't expect that after only two years since I last came here, there would already be several nests of cliff bees."
Zhou Huaian looked up at the rock honey hanging high on the cliff, and suddenly remembered the incident in Yang Chunyan's dream when several people went to the old forest to collect honey...
"Rock beehives are so comfortable. Collecting one nest can make us find several wild beehives." Zhou Yiding sighed repeatedly, "Forget it, youngest. The cliff is so high. No matter how big it is, we can only see it but not eat it. Let's find the wild beehives below the cliff first!"
Other wild bees usually build their nests in tree holes, crevices or rock holes, but rock bees like to build their nests on cliffs.
Moreover, compared with other wild bees, rock bees build particularly large nests. Although it is difficult to collect honeycombs, once you collect them, the harvest from one harvest can be equivalent to finding several wild beehives.
Although rock honey is large, collecting it is quite dangerous. They have seen mountain people collecting cliff honey before. They first pile up stinky grass and light it to use smoke to drive away the rock bees. Then they find a big tree on the cliff to tie a rope, tie the rope to their bodies, and go down little by little to where the rock bee honeycombs are. They use tools to remove the honeycombs piece by piece and put them into the urea bags they carry with them. If they are not careful, they will fall off the cliff.
"No need to look for it, it's in the stone cave in front." Zhou Huaian walked a few steps to the left and pointed to the beehive in front. "It's right here. I sealed the entrance of the cave last time I collected honey."
"It's my turn this time." Zhou Yiding put on a bee hat and walked to the entrance of the beehive. He dug away the mud and removed the stone blocking the entrance, revealing the beehive inside.
Zhou Huaian lit the moxa stick and handed it to him, "I remember there was a hole inside, and it seemed quite deep. When we found it that time, it was a new beehive, and we just cut a honey comb."
"I never found anything big when I went into the mountains with you before!" Zhou Yiding smiled and put the moxa stick at the entrance of the cave. Wild bees flew out buzzing and gathered on the honey flower tree next to it.
"After so many years of bad luck, it's time for me to get lucky!"
Zhou Huaian lit a cigarette and handed it to him. The two of them leaned against the cliff and smoked leisurely. Da Huang lay in front, looked up at the wild bees gathering around the honey flower tree, and quietly moved towards the two of them.
Zhou Huaian smiled and kicked its tail. "Da Huang, do you want some honey?"
Dahuang looked up at the entrance of the beehive, then put his head on his front paws and said nothing.
Zhou Huaian squatted down and stroked it, "Hey~ Are you still scared?"
Zhou Yiding laughed and said, "Last time I went to move a beehive, it approached the entrance of the hive and was stung by a bee on its mouth. Its mouth was swollen like a sausage, and it has not dared to get close since then."
Zhou Huaian recalled the time when he and Xu Erchun harvested honey from the field. "I was stung and swollen for two days."
Zhou Yiding glanced at him sideways and said, "You are allowed to steal other people's food, but you are not allowed to sting you to vent your anger?"
"Stay away!" Zhou Huaian blew out a puff of cigarette smoke at him, "Which country is your kid from?"
"From Shu!" Zhou Yiding approached the beehive with a smile and saw that it was a deep rock hole the size of a foot basin, filled with honey combs the size of a cattail leaf fan.
He turned his head and shouted to Zhou Huaian in surprise: "So comfortable, it's full of honey inside!"
After hearing this, Zhou Huaian hurried over to take a look, "I wonder if there is any honey nectar left?"
Zhou Yiding could only see the amber honey comb in the first photo. "It looks like it should be multi-flower honey!"
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "Who cares what the honey is? As long as we know there is a beehive here, we can come back and harvest it next spring!"
"That's right!" Zhou Yiding stood up and stepped aside. "You should do the cutting. I'm afraid I'll cut the queen cell again."
"Great!" Zhou Huaian put on his gloves, walked to the entrance of the beehive, squatted down, took the knife handed to him by Zhou Yiding, and cut out a honey comb. "Look, the first one is capped honey, it's really delicious!"
Zhou Yiding looked at it and said, "It's not honey nectar, it's flower honey!"
Zhou Huaian took a look and it was obviously different from what he remembered, "I came in early March, just in time for honey nectar."
"Hmm!" Zhou Yiding sniffed, broke off a piece and put it in his mouth, "The taste of the hundred-flower honey is really good!"
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "After filtering it out, take two kilograms back and eat slowly."
"No need. We still have two cans of the winter honey you brought last time at home." Zhou Yiding broke off a piece and gave it to Gouzi, put the honey comb in the bucket, and took the honey comb handed to him by Zhou Huaian.
By the time they cut the fifth honey comb, the honey inside had turned brown and had a faint medicinal aroma, but it still tasted different from the honey they had eaten in March of that year.
"Youngest, I can smell a bit of medicinal aroma in the honey. There should be some honey nectar left."
"Never mind, just come earlier next year to harvest the honeycombs." When he was done harvesting, Zhou Huaian reached out to cut the honeycombs inside. "Ding Ding Cat, how many honeycombs have I harvested?"
"Eight. This is the ninth one." Zhou Yiding pointed at the wooden barrel he brought. "When this one is full, we can only put urea bags in it."
"In fact, urea bags are more convenient. At least you don't have to worry about breaking them." Zhou Huaian reached in and cut off a honey comb, then came out with it and handed it to Zhou Yiding. "I don't know how deep it is in there. If I cut a few more, I won't be able to reach it."
Zhou Yiding took the honey comb and smiled until his mouth reached the back of his ears. "Cut as much as you can. It's better to fill the urea bag as well!"
"I'll try my best to cut everything I can reach." Zhou Huaian took a break, then cut five more honey combs. He stopped only when he couldn't reach any more.
Seeing that both barrels were filled to the brim, I felt that this trip was a good one. (End of this chapter)
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