PNB Chapter 266 Learning to Drive at the Forest Farm
Chapter 266 Learning to Drive at the Forest Farm
Fully armed, with a cloth mask covering his face and head and hand gags, Li Ju'an carefully opened the old beehive to check the queen-rearing eggs. There was no queen in the hive, but there were four or five eggs. He kept it, leaving the worker bees to start building hives.
Here's a trick: if you're worried about having two royal terraces appearing at the same time, when choosing a royal terrace, pick a new one with a brighter color and a mature one with a darker color.
Old Wang explained that Li Ju'an checked the color of the queen cells to prevent two queens from emerging at the same time. After hatching, the worker bees recognize the queen and destroy all other queen cells in the colony.
Li Ju'an asked, "So, a queenless colony becomes a queen colony, right?" Old Wang, also fully armed, came over to check and said, "If mating is successful, it can be used. If mating is unsuccessful, you have to merge them quickly, then reward them with feeding. When the colony reaches 4 frames or more, you can split it into two colonies to breed, which will speed up the process."
For beekeepers, the time it takes to expand their bee colonies is crucial to honey production. However, emergency queen cells are only for temporary use and cannot be used long-term. Only after the bee colony reaches a sufficient number can proper queen rearing and swarming methods be used for long-term management.
Li Ju'an was now completely wrapped in cloth, his body covered in tiny bees, looking just like a bee-man. Lu Zhiqiang came into the mountains to find him, and immediately shouted, "Hey, we thought it was someone important. Li Ju'an, how come you're like a member of the bee farm? Do you really want to go back to the old bee farm and work as a beekeeper?"
As Li Ju'an turned his head, the little bees on his body flew up, buzzing so loudly that the Lu brothers thought he was going to sting them and quickly took two steps back. Li Ju'an's face was covered, so his voice couldn't be heard, and he said in a muffled voice, "Of course. Isn't it just that I'm waiting for you two to come next year so I can treat you to honey and good food and drinks?"
Lu Zhiqiang and Lu Jinyang laughed, looking at him curiously at the tiny bees covering his body. Suddenly, Lu Zhiqiang asked him, "Li Ju'an, what if you had a crack in your skin and the flesh was showing? Would you get bitten?"
Li Ju'an continued dividing the beehives and separating the bee eggs, casually remarking, "You think I'm like you? Whoever smells stronger gets bitten." He looked down and indeed noticed a rolled-up edge on his elbow. He thought about it carefully and remembered that when he was removing the honeycomb board earlier, the edge of the board had been scraped, causing a piece of fabric to lift up.
Now, a small gap is peeking out from under his elbow, and a little bee is indeed peeking out. It moves a couple of times and climbs onto the exposed skin, its furry body pressed against it, and you can even see its stinger behind its round bottom—it's very sharp.
Lu Jinyang cried out inwardly: Oh no! Lu Zhiqiang's eyes widened, and he whispered, "Li Ju'an, don't move! Don't move! If you move, it'll be terrible. You'll have to go see your great-grandmother. Speaking of which, I've never met your great-grandmother before. Is she kind and gentle? Maybe we should wait for Dr. Zhao from the clinic to come."
Lu Jinyang frantically searched the ground for branches and ran to the kitchen of the self-built house to find Song Lanhua to get firewood and a lighter. He knew that if you encountered bees in the wild, you could use thick smoke to stun them and prevent them from hurting you. If he could get a lighter, he could light the firewood and use the smoke to stun Li Ju'an so he wouldn't get stung.
Before he could run into the house, Li Ju'an whispered to him, "No need, just watch."
Li Ju'an pointed at the beehive and emitted a low-frequency sound. His unique, deep shout, with a drawn-out "oh," made Lu Jinyang and Lu Zhiqiang exchange a glance.
Lu Zhiqiang said, "What's wrong with him? Is he so scared that he can't move?"
Lu Jinyang shrugged and said in a low voice, "Let's go to the clinic later and see. Li Ju'an is always messing with bees and trees. He's bound to cause trouble even if he doesn't have anything going on."
Lu Zhiqiang said seriously, "It's because he didn't go into the mountains to cause trouble. If you ask me, if Li Ju'an went up the mountain, grabbed a gun, and went on a cool mission, nothing would have happened. He doesn't like to bury himself in these fields and mess around. What's the point of farming if you're a hunter?"
Li Ju'an's drawn-out, low-frequency shouts greatly surprised Old Wang at the bee farm. As he watched him continue shouting, goosebumps rose all over Old Wang's body, and he quickly went to check on the bees. One by one, the previously active worker bees, under the vibration of the low-frequency shouts, all quieted down and stopped lying down.
Old Wang exclaimed in surprise, "That's really strange!"
He imitated Li Ju'an's voice and shouted at the bees. To his surprise, it really worked; the originally aggressive little bees were actually tamed by the noise.
Old Wang asked him in confusion, "Li Pao, where did you learn this skill? Did you learn it at the bee farm?"
He had worked at the old bee farm of the production brigade for decades, and he had learned all sorts of jobs. But this was the first time he had ever seen someone else do this, and it was truly an eye-opening experience.
Li Ju'an grinned and casually said, "That's right. After wandering around in the mountains for a long time, you'll pick up all sorts of things. You just learn by trial and error." Before his rebirth, when he was collecting goods in the southern mountains, he had traveled to many places, including bee farms in the south. When he had nothing to do, he would chat with the bee farm owners, talking about all sorts of things, and that's how he learned this trick.
The low-frequency bass, when prolonged, can be used to control the bee's nerves, making it quiet and still for a short period of time.
He called out softly, gently flicked the tiny bee that was sticking out of his arm, and placed it back into the hive. His calm and relaxed demeanor greatly impressed Lu Zhiqiang and Lu Jinyang.
Lu Zhiqiang excitedly gave a thumbs up and couldn't help but praise, "Damn, Li Ju'an, you're awesome! I really need to team up with you when we go into the mountains. We can go hiking in a month, so come join us and we'll be good clubs!"
The season for ginseng hunting is generally in May. Villagers would go in groups, each with a red rope tied around their waist. Once they found some wild ginseng, they would tie the rope to it. This was because the elders often said that wild ginseng was a spirit, and if it wasn't tied with a red rope, it would run away. The villagers also wouldn't call wild ginseng "ginseng," for fear of disturbing the spirit and causing it to run away, making it impossible to catch. So they called it "club."
As the Lu brothers shouted this, Li Ju'an laughed heartily and said, "Alright, I'll go with you to the mountain next month, and take Li Xiao with me too."
"Absolutely. Everyone knows you cherish your sister like the apple of your eye, hahaha. We'll bring Lu Wenqian along too. That girl loves to go into the mountains to play. She's not ladylike at all, just like a mischievous monkey. If we don't take her, she'll keep nagging and gossiping to the old man, and who knows what he'll say to us then."
Lu Zhiqiang sat with Lu Jinyang for a while longer, marveling at Li Ju'an's beekeeping, before leaving with Lu Jinyang.
Before leaving, he asked Li Ju'an, "Li Ju'an, you haven't been into the mountains for months, not even once? How could you resist? I'm itching to go in, I just want to find a chance to go into the mountains for a stroll, maybe even just to snare a snare."
Li Ju'an called out, "I have to go to the forest farm this afternoon."
"What are you doing going up to that forest farm?"
“Learn to drive.”
"Learning to drive?"
Lu Zhiqiang and Lu Jinyang's eyes widened in surprise, as if they had heard something incredible.