Building a Beehive

It was unknown whether Tang Xiaoguo's sneeze was related to the discussion of the Malayan sun bear's height.

Anyway, the little girl was quite upset about this matter.

She had thought she had gained some magical power and her sneeze could make a huge contribution to the team. But after making a fuss for half a day, it turned out her two partners had changed the water flow halfway up the hill.

By now, a large pool of water had accumulated 30 meters north of the banyan tree.

It was gradually flooding the cattle shed and still spreading.

Lu Zhe had originally wanted to open up a water channel now, but he had more important things to do at the moment.

Building a beehive!

Speaking of which, ever since picking up a piece of honey under the rocks on Eggshell Island, he hadn't encountered a second piece after arriving on Volcano Island.

He had also taken huge risks this time before managing to obtain more than half a beehive from the ferocious Malayan sun bear.

Bees were clearly also a relatively scarce resource on the island.

Most of the bees in the hive had already flown away. He said they couldn't let the remaining bees escape anymore.

So building a beehive was the most important and urgent matter?

What would be the best material for making a beehive?

Fir and paulownia wood!

Were those available?

No!

Moreover, even if they did have those, the amount of work needed to cut boards and build a box beehive without professional saws and planes would be too much.

What else was there?

Bamboo tubes!

But they would need to be thick ones. Giant bamboo tubes could work. For other bamboo species, only the thickest parts of the base might work as beehives. The Dai people used bamboo tubes as beehives to attract bees.

Were those available?

There was no shortage of bamboo, but he had never seen any that thick on Volcano Island.

Forget it!

What else?

The traditional method of making beehives for thousands of years that was most suitable used bamboo splints and cow dung.

The specific method was weaving baskets out of bamboo splints, coating them with cow dung which was safe, comfortable, warm in winter and cool in summer. It could also prevent wasps. The effect was very good!

In fact, the honey produced from cow dung beehives was of higher quality than from ordinary beehives.

Luckily both materials were plentiful here.

The problem was, would the girls accept it?

Forget just the girls, when he thought about taking the honey which came from a pile of cow dung to eat, even he felt some resistance.

Alright, he'd have to think of another way!

Using clay and pottery clay!

Given the current circumstances, wasn't that the most acceptable and feasible best approach?

He had better get started!

Lu Zhe chopped down a lot of bamboo strips and also gathered a large pile of pottery clay.

Then, carrying these things, he went to the woods near the campsite where there were all kinds of tall trees, shrubs and wildflowers.

He found a spot to paste a base, used bamboo strips to build a frame, then smeared the clay evenly on the surface to form a clay model box.

Next, in the "treasure chest" which was filled with garbage, he found a broken mosquito net.

Using bamboo strips he made five square frames, then propped up the mosquito netting on them and tied it tightly with fishing line!

He then placed them vertically inside the beehive box to make it convenient for the bees to produce honeycombs above.

Finally, he used bamboo strips and clay to make a lid which he put on top, leaving just a small crack for the worker bees to fly in and out.

A simple clay beehive was completed.

Next, he only needed to place the honeycomb three meters away from the beehive and wait for it to dry.

If the worker bees discovered a higher quality location, they might develop a swarming impulse, then build queen cells and drone combs.

After the new virgin queen bee emerged, it might take some of the honeybees and transfer locations to increase the colony size.

From then on, a honeybee colony could quickly thrive.

If after a period of time there was no queen bee taking her workers to relocate, he would have to consider if there was an issue with the beehive. If there was no problem, then human intervention might be needed.

Lu Zhe stored some of the honey in a can and left the rest of the honeycomb by the beehive to give the bees the conditions to propagate.

Jiang Yao curiously asked: “How long will it take for the queen bee to emerge?”

“Sixteen days after the worker bees build a queen cell, then after the virgin queen mates, another sixteen days and she can lay honeybee eggs. They can produce anywhere from 500-1000 babies a day. Sometimes the egg laying even exceeds the queen’s own body weight. After twenty days these babies can fly out to collect nectar. So as long as there is a queen bee, the hive can quickly thrive.”

“500-1000 babies? Heavens, wouldn't the queen bee have to be intimate with the drones all day?”

"Actually not. Their intimate times are not that frequent. There's even a saying that the queen bee only needs to mate with a drone once to store enough tadpoles for a lifetime of egg-laying.”

“Goodness me, then how long can a queen bee live? And how many eggs can she lay in her lifetime?”

“Eastern honeybees live three to five years and can lay about a million eggs.”

“The drones should have it pretty easy then!”

“In fact, after mating with the queen bee, the drones get chased out of the hive and soon die off. Because in the eyes of the other bees, his mission is complete. And he can't collect nectar himself so he can't even feed himself."

Jiang Yao nodded. "So the purpose of his entire life is just to mate once?"

"Well..." Lu Zhe was a bit helpless. "I wanted to give a negative answer, but it actually is as you said. Anyway, we've done what we can for now. Next is just to wait and see. If they haven't swarmed in a few days we'll have to intervene manually. Let's head back to camp."

"Alright!"

The two headed back to the campsite where coincidentally, a large pool of water had accumulated by the banyan tree and Shen Bing was bailing water out with three other girls.

"Lu Zhe, the whole campsite is wet."

"And so are we!"

“What should we do?”

“Hehe, I was so focused on setting up the beehive, I almost forgot about this side. But don’t worry. First bail out the water, then I’ll dig a drainage ditch and it’ll be fine.”

Lu Zhe took out a shovel and started digging a drainage ditch.

It took him two hours to dig a channel about 40 cm wide and 30 cm deep, stretching 30 meters from the woods to the edge of the elevated land.

Water gurgled as it flowed through the ditch out onto the sandy beach where it mingled with the seawater.

The ditch was done but the water kept steadily flowing towards the campsite.

But...was it drinkable?

The spring water that came from the mountain below had turned into turbid grey dirty water by the time it got here.

The girls looked at this waterway, a bit dumbfounded.

“Can we use this?”

“Should be fine after some filtering!”

“I’d still rather walk a bit further to the lakeshore to fetch water.”

Shen Bing said: “Actually after some time when the silt gets flushed out, it should become clear.”

“Hopefully...”

“Otherwise I really don’t know what use it has!”

Tang Xiaoguo took two leaves of the sensitive plant: “You guys figure it out first. I need to go to the bathroom. Class monitor can accompany me!”

“Wait!” Lu Zhe suddenly said.

“What are we waiting for?”

“To go to the bathroom!”

“You want to accompany me? Ok then, I don’t need the class monitor anymore...”

“I don’t mean I want to accompany you. What you just said reminded me that this ditch could have another excellent use!”

Shen Bing thought for a moment and her eyes lit up. “Could you be thinking of using it as a toilet?”

“That’s right!”

Lu Zhe had a faint smile at the corner of his mouth. “Tang Xiaoguo, I want to test the drainage capability here. Could you please use this spot to relieve yourself?”