Chapter 348: Treating Bee Diseases and Hunting Rabbits
When he came back from the market with a lot of harvest, Xuan Duomei had already woken up. Looking at the steamed buns and fried dough sticks he brought back, she smiled and said, "I was just thinking about eating this."
"I knew you wanted to eat. From now on, I will buy some food every market day. Oh, I also bought some meat and tofu. These tomatoes and eggplants are sent by Huang Dazhi's mother. I'll make scrambled eggs and tomatoes for lunch." Gao Mingcheng said as he took out everything, put breakfast on the table, and the meat and vegetables in the cupboard.
Then I went to get two bowls of porridge, and a hearty breakfast was ready.
After breakfast, Gao Mingcheng went into the mountains to check on the beehives. Yesterday when he was taking a bath in the reservoir, he promised others that he would be given a nest of queen bees.
After saying goodbye to Xuanyuemei, Gao Mingcheng led the two dogs into the mountains.
I haven't checked the beehive for some time. When I opened it, I found that there was a lot of honey inside. Well, now is the season with the most abundant honey sources in the year, and at this time, the lifespan of the bees will be shortened because they are busy collecting honey.
He picked up a piece of beehive, held it up to the sunlight and found that the honey inside was still relatively thin. This was honey that had just been formed but not yet fully brewed. This kind of honey had a high water content and the sweetness was not that strong. The key was that the shelf life would be much shorter.
In order to make more money by shaking honey, some beekeepers will shake honey at this time, so that they can shake honey one or two more times a year.
Gao Mingcheng was not in a hurry to make the money, so he decided to wait. In a few days, the honey in the beehives would be completely brewed.
We checked the beehives one by one. Most of them were in good condition, but there were problems with two of them. One of them had an unknown disease and the bees inside didn't look right.
There is another box where a new queen bee may have hatched, and then split. There are only a small number of bees in it and almost no honey.
Gao Mingcheng carefully observed the box of sick bees. He saw that they were moving slowly, their bodies were twitching and shaking constantly, and they had lost the ability to fly. With their wings and legs stretched out, they could only flap their wings weakly and crawl powerlessly.
Some of these bees have swollen abdomens, some are thin, and some have black bodies, faded hair, and shrunk abdomens, as if they had been fried.
As soon as he saw this situation, Gao Mingcheng had a bad feeling.
"Could it be bee paralysis? No matter what the disease is, we have to kill these sick bees first. We can't let them spread the virus to other healthy bees." Gao Mingcheng murmured to himself, and then began to kill these sick bees.
Not only do you have to kill the bees, you also have to clean and disinfect the beehive, and all the beehives inside can no longer be used.
In addition, he also had to buy some sublimated sulfur.
Sublimated sulfur is a kind of medicine extracted from sulfur. It has a high sulfur content and can prevent and treat common bee diseases, as well as skin diseases and hemorrhoids. It has many uses.
He piled the honeycombs and dead bees together, then took out a matchbox from his pocket and lit it.
High temperature can kill many viruses and effectively prevent virus transmission.
During the fire-burning process, Gao Mingcheng cannot leave. He must make sure that the fire is completely extinguished before he can leave. Otherwise, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment for setting fire to the mountain!
While burning the fire, Gao Mingcheng observed the surrounding environment to see if there were any contaminated nectar sources.
But everything in the mountains is very clean, and there are no chemical plants nearby, so external pollution is not a concern.
Then the reason why bees get sick may be related to too much rain and excessive humidity in the beehive.
It is the plum rain season now, and it is cloudy and rainy in the mountains.
He checked the lid of the beehive and saw some tiny cracks on it.
It seems that I need to cover the beehive with a tile or put a piece of plastic sheet to protect it from rain.
The lid of the beehive is not for bees to enter and exit, but it is for people to manage the beehive and collect honey. It is usually completely covered. As for the entrance and exit for the bees, there is a small hole at the bottom.
The hole may look small, but bees are small, so it is big enough for them to get in and out. And the small hole can prevent larger wasps from getting in.
After the bodies of the dead bees were burned completely, Gao Mingcheng stomped out the remaining ashes with his feet, and then left with the empty beehive.
The entire mountain and field are his territory, so he places the beehives far apart. It is also because of this that if one box of bees gets sick, the other bees will not be infected in a short time.
But since there is a disease, other beehives cannot be taken lightly. Bee paralysis disease can be prevented in the early stages, which can reduce the loss of bees.
Otherwise, when the disease reaches the late stage, it can only be killed and cannot be kept.
After coming down from the mountains, he drove his tractor to the city to buy sublimated sulfur. The health of the bees still needs to be taken seriously.
In addition to buying medicine and new beehives, he also bought a pack of cigarettes. He had promised to treat everyone to cigarettes yesterday, and he couldn't go back on his word. Since he had already treated everyone, it would be a bit unreasonable to only treat everyone to one cigarette, so he might as well just give everyone a pack.
Anyway, the cigarettes he bought weren't very expensive, just the cheap stuff that everyone in the village usually smokes.
After the trip back and forth, it was already noon when I returned to the village.
The tractor stopped at the old village. Gao Mingcheng first delivered the cigarettes to Gao Liang and the others. He did not deliver them to each household, but entrusted Gao Liang to do the deliveries. By the way, he told the person who asked him for the queen bee that there was no new queen bee in his beehive recently and they had to wait a little longer.
Gao Mingcheng had one box of bees die and half of the box of bees run away, so he needed a new queen bee to replace them. Naturally, he couldn't give them to others first.
He went all the way back to his home in Niuweiling. Duoyunmei was working in the vegetable garden. When she saw him coming back, she said, "The food is in the pot, keep it warm. Go and eat it."
"Hey." Gao Mingcheng responded and walked towards the kitchen.
When I lifted the lid of the pot, I saw two bowls inside, one containing rice and vegetables, and the other containing bone soup.
He took it out and began to eat it voraciously. Black Tiger and the elf squatted beside the dining table, waiting for him to feed them bones.
He gnawed the meat off the bone in a few bites and then threw it on the ground. The two dogs came forward to eat it. The bone was stewed quite well. Even Gao Mingcheng could have broken it if he bit it hard, let alone the dogs. There was only a crunching sound, and the bones were broken into pieces by the two dogs, and then eaten bit by bit.
Gao Mingcheng looked at their bodies and felt that they were a little thin and their fur was not shiny enough, so he said, "I'll take you to the mountains to hunt rabbits this afternoon, so that you can have a good meal of meat!"
The two dogs seemed to understand and became visibly excited. The young elf couldn't wait any longer and was already circling around Gao Mingcheng, barking urgingly.
Gao Mingcheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he had to eat faster and then threw the bowl and chopsticks into the basin.
He brought the newly bought sublimated sulfur and a few knives, and said with high spirits, "Let's go!"
The two dogs responded by barking, and followed him, quickly heading into the mountains.
In the vegetable garden, Xuanyuemei saw him going into the mountains again and could only smile helplessly, but she didn't think of stopping him. She just did what she could. If she was free, she would go to her second sister's house to sit and chat with her little nephew.
After entering the mountain, Gao Mingcheng first dealt with the problem of the beehives. He poured out a little sublimated sulfur and sprinkled it evenly on the frame beams, nest entrances and box entrances of each beehive.
When sick bees come into contact with sublimated sulfur, a series of changes will occur, which will cure the sick bees.
After finishing this task, Gao Mingcheng said to the two dogs: "It's hunting time! Let's go find rabbits!"
The two dogs understood and immediately sniffed the air to look for the rabbit.
Rabbits are used to foraging early in the morning, so they are called Mao rabbits. But with two dogs around, they will find the rabbit holes, and the noise and threats they make will scare the rabbits. Some rabbits hiding in the holes will feel unsafe and will run away in fear.
At this time, the two dogs will chase, and Gao Mingcheng can also shoot the rabbit with a flying knife.
Last year, there was a severe drought in the mountains, and the vegetation and animals were all affected to some extent. However, rabbits are creatures with a particularly strong reproductive capacity. A female rabbit can become pregnant once a month, and can reproduce through blood relatives, giving birth to several rabbits in one litter.
In the first half of the year, the grass and trees are lush and the wild rabbits in the mountains have no shortage of food, which is a good time for them to reproduce in large numbers.
The first rabbits that Heihu and his friends found were a group of small rabbits. The two dogs were not picky about size and just opened their mouths to bite them.
But Gao Mingcheng is quite picky about size. After all, those rabbits are too small, only one or two months old at most, and they don't have much flesh on them.
"Black Tiger, Elf, go find the big rabbit." Gao Mingcheng ordered.
Hei Hu looked up at Gao Mingcheng slightly, then gave up the rabbit meat in his mouth.
For the entire afternoon, Gao Mingcheng led two dogs in the mountains to search for traces of hares.
Apart from him, few people had ever set foot on this mountain. There were many wild animals in the mountain. Even though Gao Mingcheng was picky, he only managed to get more than a dozen adult rabbits.
There were so many wild rabbits, enough for Black Tiger and the elf to have a good meal, and enough for him to have a good meal too.
Just as he was about to go back, he was lucky enough to meet a group of pheasants. After the pheasants sensed the sound they made, they flapped their wings and tried to run away from a distance. But Gao Mingcheng had sharp eyes and the knife in his hand was even faster. With one throw of the knife, he killed a pheasant.
But at this time, the other pheasants had quickly hidden in the lush bushes.
Gao Mingcheng was not greedy. He carried the trophy and continued down the mountain.
After returning home, seeing that there was still some time before making dinner, Gao Mingcheng simply did not peel the skin but removed the hair. In fact, the rabbit skin is also very delicious, and the rabbit meat with skin is more refreshing when fried.
In the first half of the year, the rabbit's fur is sparse and easy to shed. Even if the rabbit skin is peeled, the skin cannot be sold at a high price. Anyone who wants to use the fur usually hunts the rabbit in the fall, then skins it and makes saltpeter.
He boiled a large pot of water and took out two large basins.
Xuanmei saw that he had brought back so many rabbits, but she didn't look very happy. She hesitated for a moment before saying, "I heard from the old people in the village that pregnant women can't eat rabbits, otherwise the baby will be born with a cleft lip."
"Nonsense!" Gao Mingcheng retorted subconsciously.
Cleft lip is obviously related to heredity. Several generations of his ancestors did not have cleft lip, and neither had he heard of cleft lip in the United States. What’s more, his two sons in his previous life were fine!
However, Xuan Mei firmly believed it, or she did not dare to take the risk. After all, she was a pregnant woman and she would not take the initiative to do anything that would be bad for the baby in her belly.
So she said, "I don't eat rabbit anyway."
Gao Mingcheng wanted to reason with her, but when he saw Xuanmei's determined look on her face about abstaining from food, he thought about it and gave up.
Our family is well off now, and we don’t have only rabbit meat to eat.
If Xuan Mi doesn't want to eat, then just don't eat it, so that she won't feel burdened after eating it.
So he smiled, held up the pheasant, and said, "Perhaps knowing that you don't want to eat rabbits, this pheasant just happened to fall into the trap! I'll stew this pheasant tonight, and you can eat more."
Many beauties were amused by Gao Mingcheng and responded with a smile.
But she looked at the rabbits and said, "It's hot now, and we can't keep so many rabbits. How about giving some to my parents and one to my second sister?"
Gao Mingcheng took a look at the rabbits on the ground. There were indeed too many of them. It would be very troublesome to pluck the fur of each one, so he picked up four rabbits and walked towards the old village.
Before leaving, he asked many beauties to help him watch the fire and boil water.
Manyu agreed. Although she didn't dare to eat rabbit, there was no problem in dehairing and stir-frying the rabbit.
Gao Mingcheng carried the rabbit and walked quickly all the way. He first arrived at Xuanyi's home. Zhang Chengyuan was not at home, still working in the fields outside. Xuanyi was at home looking after the children.
Gao Mingcheng first gave her a rabbit, and then continued walking towards the old village.
The remaining three rabbits were given to his parents, grandmother, and Gao Shouwang's family.
After delivering the rabbit, he did not stay for long and quickly returned home. At this time, the water in the iron pot had boiled, which was just right for scalding and removing the fur.
Gao Mingcheng first cleaned the pheasant's feathers, and then gave it to Xuanyuemei to stew in the kitchen.
Pheasant meat is firm, so it needs to be stewed for a longer time.
He quickly removed the hair from the remaining rabbits, but the hair was very fine and difficult to remove cleanly, so he had to light a pile of straw and then burn the rabbits on the fire. At this time, the fine hair on the skin would be burned clean, making a sizzling sound, and the skin would become firmer.
After cleaning the fur, the next step is to gut the animal.
He caught a total of thirteen wild rabbits. He has given away four of them and has nine left for himself.
He decided to keep two for the two dogs, stir-fry two of them tonight, and braise the rest.
Braised food can be kept for a day or two without going bad.
In addition, there are natural refrigerators in the countryside. Food is placed in a bamboo basket and then hung in the well with a thick hemp rope.
Well water is warm in winter and cool in summer. If you hang food a few centimeters above the well water, it will not touch the water and can benefit from the coolness of the well water, thus preserving the food and preventing it from rotting quickly.
When the watermelons in the field have grown well, soak them in well water for a while. The watermelons will become sweet and delicious and very refreshing.
(End of this chapter)
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