After picking oranges and collecting eggs, Gao Mingcheng also took Gao Hong and Li Fei to see the beehives.
When they came back this time, they happened to see Chen Duofu organizing people to go into the mountains to collect honey.
Chen Duofu plans to shake the honey for the last time this year before harvesting the late rice, and then he can concentrate on working in the fields.
Shaking honey is a job that seems easy but is actually not easy at all, so this time we invited two strong men from the village to help, plus the three members of the Chen family and Zhang Chengyuan, it would be enough.
Chen Duofu, wearing protective clothing, was responsible for taking the beehives and cutting the beeswax, while the others were responsible for shaking and packing the honey.
When Gao Mingcheng and his team passed by, they saw these people working in an orderly manner. The air was filled with the unique sweet smell of honey.
This sweet smell also attracted many wasps.
As an old beekeeper, Gao Mingcheng really couldn't stand wasps, so he immediately picked up a wooden stick from the ground, stared at the wasp, and when he felt the time was right, he hit it hard with the stick in his hand. Only a slight collision was heard, and the wasp died on the spot.
"Why are you hitting the bees?" Gao Mingcheng's movements were so fast that Li Fei didn't see clearly what Gao Mingcheng was hitting. She thought Gao Mingcheng was hitting a bee, so she looked puzzled.
Gao Mingcheng pointed at the wasp on the ground. The wasp was not completely dead yet, and its wings were still trembling slightly, but it could no longer fly.
"Look, this is a wasp. It's bigger than a bee and has a different color. This wasp is very annoying. It steals honey and eats bees. If you leave it alone, there will be fewer and fewer bees in the beehive."
Li Fei looked in the direction Gao Mingcheng pointed, and then she saw clearly that it was indeed a wasp.
Gao Hong was eager to try, and he looked around and soon found a wooden stick that suited him.
There were many branches and sticks in the mountains. As soon as Gao Hong found one, Li Fei took it away. Li Fei said, "I want to try it too."
Gao Hong handed the stick to Li Fei and went to look somewhere else.
When he found a stick again, he said to Li Fei, "Be careful not to get stung by a wasp. It hurts a lot."
"I know! The mouth of a bamboo snake and the sting of a wasp. Both are not poisonous, but the heart of a woman is the most poisonous. This verse comes from Investiture of the Gods!" Li Fei is a Chinese teacher and she quickly started quoting from classics.
Li Fei held the wooden stick tightly, staring at the wasp flying in the air without blinking. She felt a little nervous and felt that the time had come, so she immediately tried to hit it. However, the wasp had already noticed her as soon as she moved, and ran away in an instant!
Li Fei tried to hit the wasps several times in a row but failed. After working for a long time, his arms were almost tired, but he didn't hit a single wasp. He even nearly slipped and fell into the ditch nearby.
"Fei Fei, be careful!" Gao Hong noticed from the corner of his eye that Li Fei was unstable and immediately ran towards her. The advantage of his good physical fitness was immediately highlighted. Before Li Fei was about to fall, Gao Hong grabbed her in time.
Li Fei was startled and her little face turned pale.
In just a short while, Gao Mingcheng had killed more than a dozen wasps. Seeing that Li Fei was about to fall, he quickly said, "The mountain road is uneven, sister-in-law, you'd better be careful."
After being frightened, Li Fei didn't dare to show off anymore. She threw the stick away and said, "I won't fight anymore. I'll just watch from the side."
Her voluntary withdrawal made Gao Hong feel much more at ease.
After he no longer had to take care of her, Gao Hong also concentrated on hitting the wasps. All men have a competitive spirit. Seeing Gao Mingcheng killing many wasps with his quick hands and eyes, Gao Hong was not willing to admit defeat. He felt that he was not inferior to Gao Mingcheng in terms of eyesight or hand speed.
If it was a competition of marksmanship, Gao Hong was absolutely confident that he would beat Gao Mingcheng. After all, his marksmanship was acquired by using a lot of bullets in the army, while Gao Mingcheng would never have such conditions to practice shooting!
Gao Hong and Gao Mingcheng did not say anything, but were competing secretly to see who could hit more wasps.
Li Fei didn't know about the competition between the men. After staring at it for a while, she felt a little bored and turned to watch Chen Dasong and the others shaking honey.
The closer she got to the honey shaker, the sweeter the honey smelled, causing Li Fei to take a few deep breaths.
Gao Mingcheng had given her honey before, but it was the first time Li Fei saw how honey came out of the beehive.
She watched Chen Dasong shaking the handle quickly, and was very curious. She couldn't help but ask, "Can I try it?"
Chen Dasong immediately let go, stood aside, and grinned: "Of course, come on, try it."
Li Fei had seen how Chen Dasong shook the honey before, so there was no need for Chen Dasong to teach her. She just walked forward, grabbed the handle, and started shaking it.
After gradually finding the feel for it, she began to speed up, but as soon as she sped up, she felt severe pain in her wrist, and she gave up before she could even hold on for three minutes.
She let go of her hand and laughed dryly: "Uncle, you should do the shaking!"
Chen Dasong did not laugh at her. After shaking it for a while, he took out the beehive and replaced it with two new ones that had not been shaken before.
Chen Duofu was busy taking out the bee combs, cutting the honey, and putting the bee combs back in place. He was also walking back and forth between the honey shaker and the beehives. He was the busiest person in the whole place.
Gao Mingcheng was killing wasps near a beehive and was talking to Chen Duofu: "How many beehives have you shaken?"
Chen Duofu said: "We just started shaking the beehives today, and we have only shaken 12 beehives. The bees are doing well this year, with few diseases and no reduction in honey production, which is pretty good."
Gao Mingcheng felt good after hearing this.
Honey is valuable and the honey production is high, so he can earn tens of thousands of dollars a year!
As it stands now, the output value of the entire Xiaofushan is not as valuable as these more than 40 boxes of bees.
Gao Mingcheng said, "Well, it's good. You should pay more attention to the bees. If you find any problems with the bees, deal with them in time. If you can't handle it, come to the county to find me."
Chen Duofu nodded and said, "Okay."
After Gao Mingcheng killed a few more wasps, he saw that there were no more wasps nearby. He winked at Gao Hong and asked, "How many did you kill?"
Gao Hong was quite satisfied with his performance and said, "I killed 18 wasps! There are so many wasps here!"
Gao Mingcheng smiled and said, "Of course. There are so many honeys and bees here, so naturally there are many wasps coveting them. But now these wasps are probably hiding. Let's go. It's getting late. We should go back! Oh, by the way, let me get you some of the freshest honey!"
Gao Mingcheng threw the stick in his hand to the ground and went to the honey shaker to pick up a bottle of freshly shaken honey.
After the honey passes through the centrifugal effect of the honey shaker, it gathers at the bottom of the honey shaker. When there is too much honey, it must be poured into a clean bucket of water to settle, otherwise it will be difficult to continue shaking the honey.
After the honey in the bucket has settled, use a scoop and funnel to pour the honey into the bottle, and then carry the bottle back. This will be more convenient and cleaner.
The bottle in Gao Mingcheng's hand was a 20-jin bottle. Seeing this, Gao Hong thought that he wanted to give the whole bottle to himself, so he quickly declined: "This is too much! Just give me one or two jin."
Gao Mingcheng raised the bee in his hand and said with a smile: "These are all in big bottles. If you want small bottles, you have to go back and repack them in small bottles." (End of this chapter)
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