After returning from my cultivation journey, I built a farm through fortune telling.

Chapter 118

Even so, we can't finish eating all the lychees every year, and we give most of them to relatives and friends.

Their lychee variety is a local variety with a relatively large seed and moderate sweetness. When sold in the market, it can fetch around ten yuan when it first comes to market, but once the lychees are in season, it will only cost five or six yuan. If the harvest is good, Baijiang will set up a stall there; if the harvest is average, then he won't bother, as it's not worth the trouble.

"Hey Lulu, stay away! Be careful of those flying insect feathers that could prick you!"

Grandpa Bai said from the side.

Can you believe it? This insect can fly! It can lie still quietly and still injure you!
Bai Lu had been injured before, with a large patch of blisters on her arm that was both spicy and painful. Since then, she, who hated insects, has become even more disgusted with them—giving herself another excuse to avoid farm work.

Uncle Bai said, "Let's go, we need to go into the mountains. It's been so many days, we don't even know if that bee nest is still there."

The egrets were just taking a look around the barren mountain. Their main task today was to bring home the bees that Grandpa Bai had found on the mountain. The egrets thought that the flowering season for lychees and longans was approaching, and it would be a pity not to make some honey!

But a hive of bees here isn't cheap; it costs at least six or seven hundred yuan a hive. Grandpa Bai couldn't bear to spend that money and insisted on bringing the bees from the mountain home. Bai Lu couldn't persuade him otherwise, so she had no choice but to go up the mountain with him.

Although Grandpa Bai is in his seventies or eighties, he is in very good health. When he went to sweep the grave of his great-grandfather, he climbed several mountains, and many young people could not keep up with him!

After hiking, climbing mountains, and venturing into groves, Uncle Bai was exhausted after an hour, but Grandpa Bai was excitedly pointing to the beehive built under the rock wall and saying, "That's it!"

Actually, even without Grandpa Bai saying anything, the egret already knew; it could hear the buzzing of the bees' wings from afar.

"We've finally found it!"

Bai Chen stood with his hands on his hips. His grandpa was really something else. He was better than him at climbing mountains and exploring forests. If he hadn't trained, he might have lost track of him.

"Tired?" Grandpa Bai sat down on a rock, took off his hat and fanned himself. "You need to exercise more, otherwise you won't be able to keep up with an old man like me who's seventy or eighty!"

"You're a far cry from an ordinary old man! With your legs, I'd believe you were twenty!"

Bai Chen sat down next to the old man and started pulling down his trouser leg. The trauma from the Qingming Festival was too great; he had already rolled his trouser leg up to his thigh. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there were no leeches.

He wasn't exaggerating. During this time, with wild vegetables and the nourishing spirit array, the physical condition of the Bai family members, young and old, had improved considerably. At least someone like Qin Xiu, who loved to complain about nothing, stopped saying she had any aches or pains.

Grandpa Bai was amused and kept laughing.

"Take a break, put on your headgear, don't get stung! Getting stung might hurt a little and cause some swelling, but if the bee dies, it's not worth it! It costs several hundred yuan!"

Grandpa Bai nudged Uncle Bai, who took off his bag and took out several pieces of black gauze with tiny holes, giving one to each of them.

"Like me, you can just put it on the hat."

Everyone brought a straw hat up the mountain. Uncle Bai demonstrated by draping a square black veil over the hat and tying a knot around his neck. A simple bee-proof hat was ready, which could protect against bees without obstructing vision.

If you get stung by a bee, your face will swell up like a pig's head!
Uncle Bai is very experienced.

Bai Lu recalled a time when it was raining when she was a child. Her Uncle Bai went to pick her up from school, and his head was so swollen that he was unrecognizable!
The teachers were worried about Bailu going with him!
In the end, it was Bai Jiang Qin Xiu who came to pick her up after finishing work.

Grandpa Bai and Uncle Bai are not afraid of being stung. They only protect their faces and don't care about the rest of their bodies. Even if they are stung, it will only hurt for a few days.

"Lulu and Weiwei, put on your coats and gloves, put your hands in your pockets, and stand back a bit, don't get stung, it hurts so much! Xiaochen, come help me!" Bai Chen: "..."

He looked at himself; he had no coat, no gloves, only a thin black veil over his head. As for safety measures, they were barely adequate.

Has the preference for sons over daughters become a myth?
Is he worthless now, being the eldest grandson of the Bai family?

"Bring out the beehives."

As Grandpa Bai spoke to Uncle Bai, he broke off a branch, gathered some dry grass, lit it with a lighter, and the smoke drifted towards the hive. The bees that were circling and scouting outside immediately flew away.

This is a traditional method for collecting bees, because the smoke can temporarily disorient the bees and reduce their aggression.

Uncle Bai hung the bee collection cage in a place where it wouldn't be affected by the smoke. This bee collection cage was designed to be dark, as bees, to some extent, prefer darkness.

Then he came over with a small cage, his ruthless iron hands rummaging through the swarm of bees that hadn't been driven away by the smoke.

"What are you looking for? Uncle, aren't you afraid of getting stung?" Bai Chen asked, puzzled.

"Find the queen bee!"

When Uncle Bai said that, Bai Chen's long-standing biological knowledge began to attack him. The queen bee's most important task is to lay eggs and provide labor for the development of the bee family.

"Uncle, there!"

Bai Lu and Bai Wei approached us at some point, pointing at the exceptionally large bee.

"It really is! Dad, make the smoke bigger."

Grandpa Bai immediately added another handful of hay, and the smoke made the bees scurry around. Uncle Bai took the opportunity to gently capture the queen bee with a queen bee cage, his movements swift and gentle.

Then the cage containing the queen bee was placed into the bee collection cage, because most of the bees would follow the queen bee into the new hive.

Grandpa Bai gently tapped the original beehive and blew air around it from time to time. Bees flew out of the hive one after another, and before long, he had a beehive without bees.

It can't be said that there are no bees at all, because there are still bee pupae inside.

The densely packed hexagonal houses are the rooms of every hardworking bee, but some houses have closed doors. Inside, there are unborn baby bees with white doors. Suddenly, a hand reaches out from the side and forcibly breaks down the baby bee's door. The sudden light makes the baby bee wriggle in fear, but before it can be scared for long, it is pinched by two fingers and thrown into its mouth.

Uncle Bai exclaimed with obvious enjoyment, "Mmm, delicious! I haven't had anything like this in years!"

The egrets grinned, clearly ravenous; they were so hungry they'd eat anything.

What's the difference between an unborn bee larva and a maggot? Oh no, there is a difference; maggots aren't as robust as bee pupae!
How could anyone do that?!

The egret doesn't understand, it really doesn't understand.

(End of this chapter)