If you bloom, bees will come

Tian Keqing

Have you seen the honey from Badagong Mountain? I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the golden honey that had just come out of the box. It was like gold that was about to melt, and it directly touched my stomach buds. The honey from Badagong Mountain gathers the essence of the sun and the moon, and the aura of heaven and earth. It is called honey in the clouds.

Entering September, it is a colorful September, a mature September, and a harvest September. They all compare September to the golden years, and September is a real and full month. season. No wonder the country designated September 22 as the "Farmers' Harvest Festival". "The year depends on the Spring Festival, and the harvest depends on September." On September 18th, the weather just cleared up. In order to seize this rare weather, we were invited by Xiao Jinmei, a major beekeeper, to collect honey on site. We also came to "several wheat and one fight". Firstly, we wanted to shoot a promotional video, and secondly, we wanted to shoot a group of beekeepers. Good photos make brochures. In the morning, we divided our troops into two groups and picked up the photographer from the county town towards Jianjiapo and headed to Maopo Village in Badagong Mountain. We drove all the way there and passed through Hongjiaguan, the hometown of the marshal, Qiaoziwan, the hometown of the general, and Liangshuikou along the way, and then Enter Damutang, Shataping Township, spiral up the tall Jiulong Mountain, and enter Maopo Village among the vast mountains. The mountain fog filled this small mountain village, hugging the mountains and caressing our skin. The mountain fog was like nature's shower gel, coating each of our faces with a layer of jade dew. When we arrived at the apiary, our photographer Xiao Jin was busy installing the drone and began to remotely take aerial photos of the beautiful scenery in the mountains. The drone made a "buzzing" sound similar to that of bees, and the bees thought they were coming. A huge queen bee and swarms of bees flying in the sky with the drone, forming a beautiful bee scene. At the beekeeper's apiary, the beekeeper opened the beehive cover and took out the honeycomb with both hands. Under the sunlight, the honeycomb was shining with a golden halo, and the honey was dripping like jade dew. In the bee farm, groups of bees happily shuttled among the mountain flowers facing the sun, showing us their hardworking and dedicated side. The wild flowers on the mountain are swaying and exuding natural floral fragrance, tempting the bees to give them a passionate kiss. In this high mountain, bees jump and dance happily picking flowers, busy in the flower stamens, bringing infinite vitality to the mountain. Xiao Jinmei is like a small grass in the mountains, growing tenaciously in the rain and dew in the mountains. Although she can't sing due to tracheitis, she often hums "There is no fragrance of flowers. No height of trees. I am a grass that no one knows...". ?

Xiao Jinmei is an authentic Bada Gongshan native and an authentic Tujia village girl. She was born in 1975 in a mountain called Maopo Village in Badagong Mountain Town. She has followed her parents in the mountains since she was a child. Working in the mountains cultivates the nature of being able to endure hardships and be domineering. After graduating from junior high school, in order to reduce the burden on her family, she boarded a train south to Guangdong alone when she was under 16 years old, and worked in a food bag production and processing factory for five years. Because of her strong character and talent, she was appreciated by her boss. , appointed her as workshop director. No matter how hard things are, you should do it yourself first. If there are any errors in product quality, you should correct them yourself and never pass them on to others. Due to the long-term exposure to dust, she suffered from chronic tracheitis, which could not be cured. One year during the holidays, she returned to her parents' home. Her mother took out the honey she had brought and asked her to eat it. The tracheitis disappeared without her knowing it. Since then, she has She resolutely declined the offer from her boss and workers to stay, and returned to Maopo Village where she was born and raised to start her dream beekeeping business.

? The mountains and rivers support the people. Maopo Village is located on the border of the Badagong Mountain National Primitive Forest Reserve. The wild flowers on the mountain are inexhaustible and natural resources, especially the mountain of Gallia flowers, which is a wealth of money! In 2016, she and her husband went back to her hometown to conduct multiple resource inspections, and also inspected the situation of large beekeeping households. However, her husband finally supported her idea and she happily returned to her parents' home. In order to learn her true skills, she went to the home of Master Zhao, a large beekeeper in Shanghexi Township, to study for half a year. She didn’t know how many times she had been stung by bees. It was a common occurrence. Even her master told her not to do it. It was done by men, but she just didn’t believe in evil. “I can definitely do what you men do. I will definitely do it.” I can do better than you because women are naturally careful." The master couldn't teach her all his skills. ? In January 2017, she purchased 40 boxes of bees and truly became the "queen bee". Together with his companions, they traveled north and south to different places chasing flowers and nectar, wandering without a fixed location and living a caravan life. She described, "I drink mountain spring water, eat wild vegetables, and sleep on an open-air bed. The biggest inconvenience for a woman is the problem of housing." But she overcame all kinds of difficulties, kept company with bees, acted as matchmaker with flowers, dated with forests, and talked with mountains. She, a woman from the mountains, worked hard in beekeeping with her determination to be self-reliant. She earned more than 100,000 yuan that year and became the first female beekeeper in Sangzhi County. ?

Her husband is from Changde and has been doing construction projects outside for a long time. In 2018, she mobilized her husband to give up the construction project and join her beekeeping business. When the plum blossoms bloomed, she dragged more than 100 boxes of bees up to Badagong Mountain to begin the busy season of collecting flowers and making honey. The income from the nectar of the plum blossoms in one season is more than 200,000 yuan.

If you bloom, bees will come.

She is like a mountain flower blooming in the mountains, attracting hundreds of flowers to bloom. In 2019, Xiao Jinmei wanted to drive the villagers of Badagong Mountain to jointly develop beekeeping, so she signed an assistance agreement with Xujiaqiao and Xishaping villages to develop Keep 200 boxes of bees, and give 20% of each box to the villagers. Last year alone, the income of more than 600 poor households in two villages increased by 100 yuan per capita. At the honey collection site, Director Liu of Xujiaqiao Village said excitedly that it was Xiao Xiao who brought wealth and good industries to their village. Under her technical guidance, more than 1,000 beekeeping households in the town were promoted, making Badagongshan a key town with tens of thousands of beekeeping boxes. Badagong Mountain, just like the Sangzhi folk song "The mountain is a Wanbao Mountain, the tree is a money tree", with blooming flowers and a gold-rich industry, beekeeping not only reflects income but also reflects the value of a woman's life. Xiao Jinmei said confidently. Now her beekeeping has grown to more than 450 boxes, and she can produce more than 4,000 kilograms of honey this year. Although beekeeping is hard work and involves too much sweat and tears. But I still feel happier! ?

The mountain in my hometown is still the same mountain, and the trees are still the same. The flowers were still in full bloom. In the dance of bees, she said that she was just like a "drunken butterfly, unable to fly out of this world of flowers...".

In life, bitterness and happiness accompany each other, just like nectar, there is a slight bitterness in the sweetness, and more leaves a lingering fragrance!