The three of them finished spreading the fertilizer on the tea garden, and then the spring rain began to fall. The father and daughter hurried back, and only Qiao Qiao jumped happily:
"It's raining heavily!"
Fortunately, there were trees on the hillside all the way, and the rain wasn't heavy at first, so it didn't get too wet when we got home. Song Tan thought about the tea garden and realized that it was full of spiritual energy, so it wouldn't be appropriate if it didn't grow vigorously, right?
"Dad, I think the tea leaves will be picked in a few days. Anyway, we are hiring people from everywhere this year, and there are no shortage of people like these one or two."
"If you don't have time to pick the tea leaves, just hire someone."
"Where is the need to hire someone?" Ulan felt that it would be useless to spend money on her daughter if she didn't keep an eye on her.
How much does a pound of tea cost? How expensive is it to hire someone? At least it takes 150 days.
Song Tan felt that her mother had not changed her mind yet!
"Mom, I can sell wild vegetables for twenty, and I can also sell milkvetch for twenty. Why do you think I can't sell a pound of tea for two thousand?"
If we go by the usual rules, a skilled worker who works from morning to night when the tea leaves are plentiful will only have three or four kilograms of Maojian a day.
Four pounds of tea leaves produce one pound of dry tea, and one pound of dry tea only sells for one or two hundred, which is definitely not cost-effective.
But the problem is, the prices are different now.
The best time to have spring tea is only about 20 days, but after the Qingming Festival it is almost no longer there, so of course you have to hurry up.
Wu Lan thought about it and found that although she had confidence in her daughter, she had no confidence in local tea selling for 2,000 yuan per catty. But she had agreed before that she would listen to her daughter about the work in the fields...
She hesitated: "There's no need to invite anyone, your father, me, your grandparents can also help. Our tea garden is just that, it's enough."
Song Tan started to crack his fingers: "When picking tea leaves, you have to worry about breeding and seedlings, right? Someone has to take care of the chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs at home, right? Don't you need to take a look at the black fungus over there in the chestnut forest? You have to take care of the vetch you pick every day, right?
?”
"Mom, I feel like we don't have enough family now. You all have to go pick tea leaves, so I have to learn the art of cloning first."
With the current concentration of spiritual energy and decades of practice, Song Tan felt that he should be able to master this move.
The premise is not to scare people.
Ulan:……
She was speechless.
Think about it again, the money earned from selling vegetables this year is not enough for labor!
So I was very cruel:
"Okay, I'll find two quick guys in the village - will I have to hire a tea fryer then? Your dad hasn't done this job for many years, so don't let it get ruined."
Song Tan still can't remember who in the village knows how to fry tea and whose family has a tea frying machine. But this small job for his family is not much expensive——
"Okay, Mom, you can discuss the arrangements with my dad."
Just as he was talking, the phone call came. Song Sancheng answered the phone and chatted with the person for a while:
"Tan Tan, would you like to see the bees? It's over there in Pine Tree Town."
…
The bee seller is in Pine Tree Town.
Songshu Town is next to Qingxi Town and not too far from their Yunqiao Village. It only takes 20 minutes to drive there.
Because there are so many mountains here, local residents rely on tea picking as their main source of income. Naturally, there are many flowers and trees on the hillside.
Therefore, there is a very famous bee-keeper in Pine Tree Town.
Song Tan drove Song Sancheng and Qiao Qiao up the mountain road. When they saw a large cardboard on the side of the road with "Farmhouse Honey" written in ink on it, they knew they were at the right place.
Because this bee farm is on a mountain road, the houses are not as neatly built as those on the roadside. There is even a simple iron shed built next to it.
In the open space on the hillside in front of the door, square wooden boxes were placed regularly. Under the sunlight, the bees' furry bodies vibrated, and the buzzing sound was particularly obvious.
They kept lingering in the low altitude, but the temperature in the mountains was slightly lower, and few fruit tree flowers had bloomed so far. In the end, they could only lie down in front of a shallow water dish.
"Old Song, you are here!"
A man with messy hair and a black sweater came out. When he saw Song Tan's family of three, he showed great enthusiasm:
"Is this your son or daughter? She looks really good - come on, do you want a bee? I'll show you what kind you want!"
"But I don't have any accidental bees here. They are all medium bees. We are local bees, and they are small. I have five spleens in this box, and there are only about 3,000 in one spleen... It is not easy to raise in this winter.
ah!"
Bee keepers call the place where the bees live called the spleen, and above it is the bee's nest, a grid of hexagonal holes.
Generally, the number of bees living in a hive of the same size is about the same. That's how they are. A big house won't work, and a small house won't work either.
The other party was sincere and didn't say anything. He had already introduced me first.
Song Tan nodded: "It's okay, uncle, I want our bumble bee - how much honey can this box produce?"
Speaking of this, the middle-aged man's face was full of pride and smile: "You may not think that our Bumblebees are small, but they are diligent, more capable than the Italian Bees, and they are not picky. If there are too many flowers in this box, eight
Ten pounds is no problem."
"It won't work if we don't spend enough. If we don't spend enough, they probably won't be able to eat enough."
Speaking of this, beekeepers also sighed:
"In previous winters, I drove to the south, where there were many flowers and it was warm. The market has been bad these past two years, so I didn't have to run around. I have been worried all winter - you see, I'm not feeding you sugar water.
Is that so? Otherwise, you won’t be able to survive.”
"Old Song, we are all fellow villagers, and I won't hide it from you. The price of spring bees is already more expensive. I get 600 yuan for this box. If you sincerely want it, 560, I will feed you sugar water without hiding it.
You are just enough to keep them alive, without any honey."
"But if there are flowers, they will be able to adjust immediately - they will definitely not lose money if they buy it."
Song Tan had checked online before, and the price should be fairly reasonable. Now she would look at Song Sancheng.
Song Sancheng doesn’t understand bees either!
After thinking about it, he said sincerely: "I have fourteen acres of flower fields. How many of them are suitable for you to buy? Besides, how do you think these bees are good or bad?"
The beekeeper thought for a moment: "It stands to reason that with one hive of bees per three acres, it is no problem to produce six or seven kilograms of honey from one acre of land. Now that there are few flowers and you have little experience, just take four boxes, or three boxes will be fine."
."
As for whether bees are good or bad...
Under the stunned gaze of the family of three, the other party didn't even wear gloves. He just opened the beehive without fear with a pair of ruthless iron hands and took out a piece of spleen:
"Look, these worker bees are working hard."
As he spoke, he grabbed a handful from the other side and saw a dozen furry bees crawling around in his palm, fluttering their wings and flying low. One of them was particularly big:
"Look, this is the queen bee. Does she look good?"
Qiao Qiao squatted aside with greedy eyes and stretched out her hand:
"Qiaoqiao also wants to touch it..."
The beekeeper got excited and quickly put the bees back:
"You can't touch this! Stinging people will hurt. You always have to wear a gauze and gloves!"