There are people in the depths of apricot flowers

The first time I saw the news of apricot blossom in the mountains was from my cousin's WeChat, which was the morning after she changed places to release bees. She posted a vibrato video on WeChat. In the valley full of apricot flowers, they chose a horizontal ditch, beehives lined up, bees buzzed, and a tent was hidden in apricot flowers. That's their temporary home. The little black dog wagged his tail leisurely by the tent and occasionally looked up and barked. Tik Tok's songs are sweet and unrestrained, and the lyrics are very sensational. I remember a saying: Come to me when the flowers bloom. Music and pictures are infinitely attractive, so the next day, three or five literary friends agreed to drive.

The village is at the foot of Nuerhu Mountain, and the bee farm is in the further mountain. It's still 20 kilometers from the village to there. We started from the city and arrived at the small village called Tayingzi without much effort. It just rained the day before, and the air is fresh. Lu Huaji walked in the forest, and fields of different sizes and shapes were surrounded by dams made of stones. Inquiring all the way, the villagers pointed to the distance and walked up the dirt road. There is a beekeeper's tent in the most lush place of apricot flowers.

Along the dirt road, step by step uphill, surprises constantly. Gully bifurcation, corner hillside, apricot tree eye-catching raise petals. A slope of apricot blossoms is a piece of itself, or set off with pine trees, like snow and dreams, and it is a poem between heaven and earth and between stones. Walking and watching, panting, I finally saw the blue tent in the video. If you look carefully, it's not my cousin's house, but another beekeeper in the same village as my cousin, and her beekeeping farm went up. Looking at the flowers all the way, I finally saw my brother-in-law wearing a bee net cover. He sat on a beehive and looked around with a beehive in his hand. He is handing out bees. The direction and wind direction of mountains and rivers will affect the flow of honey. When buckwheat flows honey, if the site is properly selected, each box of bees can collect 4 Liang of pollen, and the yield will double. During the transition, beekeepers rode motorcycles around the mountain, not to see the scenery, but to observe the phenology and find a suitable place to put it. The beehives in this valley are generally east-west and were chosen by my cousin's father-in-law. They have been here for more than 20 years. My brother-in-law was born in a beekeeping family. His grandfather started beekeeping when he was young. When my brother-in-law was 2/kloc-0 years old, his father passed this craft on to him. My hometown is in the northernmost part of western Liaoning. This area mainly produces Sophora japonica nectar and Vitex negundo nectar. After these two flowering periods, I will go somewhere else to find honey sources. They have been to Inner Mongolia, hundreds of kilometers away from home, to release bees, and this transition is the closest to home.

The apricot flowers near home have withered, but the apricot flowers in the mountains only bloom, and the more they go up the mountain, the later they bloom. Although the flowering period of apricot flowers is only a few days, it will not be short if it goes on like this.

I asked my cousin, do you have apricot nectar? My cousin broke off a piece of beeswax from the bee rack and told me that the dark brown one was pollen and the sweet one was chewed apricot nectar. Apricot nectar is sweet, slightly bitter and not very delicious. In addition, when bees breed, they can't even eat enough for themselves. How can they take honey by force? My cousin's family has never sold apricot nectar. Speaking of bees, my cousin is full of joy, as if talking about her own children. Last year, she went to Shuangjing Town in Aohan to let bees collect honey. It rained for four days. Bees can't go out to collect honey, but they are not hungry. Because my cousin always leaves a small piece of honey for bees to use when they can't pick honey. She knows that bees are spiritual insects. When there is no food, they will panic and even "work". She has established a close and friendly relationship with bees. When bees are thirsty, they will come to her. Dozens of flies flew in from doors and windows and landed on her face and arms. They only crawl and never sting. At this time, she went out to have a look, and there must be no water in the basin.

Like all beekeepers, cousins are very satisfied. With the popularization of new varieties and new technologies, electric rocking bees and self-turning honey shakers have been introduced, which greatly reduces the labor of bee farmers. As one of the producing areas of Vitex negundo honey in China, bee products have become a new economic growth point. At that time, grandpa sold a lot of honey water, each weighing tens of kilograms, and pushed it to the township supply and marketing cooperative to sell honey; My father sold honey in vats, weighing more than 0/00 Jin per barrel, and pulled it to the county local product company with a donkey cart to sell honey; Now they have their own vans, each of which can hold several tons of honey. Cousins took a word from their own names and registered a trademark for their honey. Together with beekeepers, they registered professional bee cooperatives, sold high-quality honey separately, and promoted the original ecological honey to all parts of the country with the help of modern platforms. From QQ space and blogs to WeChat, Tik Tok and a auto faster, they have achieved hot sales online and offline. The TV station also broadcast their deeds of getting rich through hard work.

In recent years, my cousin's honey is often not sold, which sends a message. Beekeeping is bitter and tiring, but there are successors. As an industrial poverty alleviation project, young people see business opportunities and are committed to making the industry bigger. What's more gratifying is that solar panel power generation solves all the problems. In the mountains, they can cook with electric cookers and sleep on electric mattresses. Twenty years ago, beekeepers could only cook with kerosene stoves and light candles at night.

The apricot blossoms in western Liaoning are blooming all over the mountains, gorgeous in the world and quickly disappearing, with a soft fragrance in the wind. Apricot flowers have been in bloom, and many wild flowers are in full bloom for the second time. Bee farm is no longer lonely, photographers, writers and painters are pouring in, and it has become a paradise for people to live in harmony with nature.

My cousin and his wife will live in the mountains for two months. When they return to the village, Vitex negundo will blossom in large areas. At this time, the longest honey season in western Liaoning began, and a sweet season came.