Chapter 1170: Queen Bee

Blue Star did not disappoint the lords' expectations; in the early afternoon, a drizzling autumn rain began to fall.

The flocks of migratory birds with strong directional sense and good stamina raised their flight altitude above the rain clouds; the flocks that relied on ground landmarks for navigation and had poorer stamina landed to rest, waiting until the rain stopped before continuing their journey.

The lords, who had held out for a full seven days and nights on X-nutrient solution, could finally catch their breath.

This rain fell on and off until four in the morning of the second day. After the rain stopped, the sun rose, the temperature gradually climbed, and flocks of migratory birds once again began to pass over the territory in groups.

However, the migratory birds had visibly decreased in number, easing the lords' pressure to guard their fields. Even the Green Dragon bird-catching team on Mountain Forty-Nine halted their hunting operations.

After getting plenty of rest during the rain, Xia Qing came to the beekeeping greenhouse. After checking her protective suit once more, she instructed the two companions who had followed her, "Boss, Wolf Lao Er, I'm going to work inside this greenhouse. Don't come in."

Evolved bees had considerable attack power, and bees and honey were not food for evolved sheep or evolved wolfhounds, so Boss and Wolf Lao Er both had little interest in the beekeeping greenhouse.

After Xia Qing entered the small room beside the beekeeping greenhouse, Sheep Boss turned around to check the big toon tree in the northern buffer forest, and wolfhound Wolf Lao Er picked up a small basket in his mouth and went to catch bugs to feed the fish.

Inside the small room, Xia Qing opened the plastic bag by the wall, took out the honey extractor she had traded with Kuang Qingwei, carried it into the beekeeping greenhouse, and then carefully opened the lid of the beehive.

Beekeeper Xia Qing was about to harvest her first honey.

In the morning, when temperatures are high and sunlight is abundant, bees are in their active foraging period, which is also the right time for honey harvesting. After humans take the honey, the bees have plenty of time to forage and replenish what was consumed.

Once the hive lid was opened, the buzzing of the bees instantly grew louder. However, the artificially raised bees were relatively familiar with humans, so they did not attack Xia Qing, who was moving carefully and not making much noise.

Having already learned honey harvesting in the beekeeping shed of Territory One, Xia Qing slowly pulled out the vertically placed middle frame, which was crawling with bees.

A queen bee twice the size of a worker bee and as long as her middle finger crawled slowly across this frame. Xia Qing looked at the queen for a few seconds, then began examining the small hexagonal cells on the frame—the bees' "combs."

Bee combs come in three types: honey combs for storing honey, pollen combs for storing pollen, and brood combs for rearing larvae.

Of course, these combs can be further subdivided; for example, brood combs can be divided into egg combs, larva combs, and capped brood combs.

On the lower left of the frame Xia Qing was holding, there was a section of larva comb nurturing bee larvae, and capped comb where the hexagonal cells had been sealed and the larvae inside were pupating.

Although bees have evolved, most worker bees only live two to four months, so the queen must constantly lay eggs and hatch new bees to keep the colony running normally.

The lower left of the frame Xia Qing was holding was the "brood area" inside the hive. Next to the brood area was the pollen comb, which stored pollen used to feed the young bees.

This frame could not be spun, otherwise the Green Light bees Xia Qing had worked so hard to trade for would be left without offspring.

Since this frame couldn't be spun, it also needed manual care. Xia Qing noticed that in the center of the frame's brood area, two bulges had swelled up—each twice the size of a regular brood cell and shaped like peanut shells. These bulges were the bees' queen cells.

As the name suggests, what is nurtured inside the queen cells is the next generation of queen bees.

The queen bee is a rather pitiable character in the colony. She is called "queen" only because she is the largest; in reality, she is merely the colony's reproductive tool. There is no traditional "ruler" figure in a bee colony as there is in animal groups; the colony's operation relies on the collective decision-making of the worker bees.

The appearance of two queen cells in this hive's brood area shows that the worker bees keenly sensed the queen's weakening pheromones, so they built queen cells to force the queen to lay eggs inside them.

When the new queen hatches, if the old queen still has some fighting strength, they will duel to decide who is this colony's queen. If the old and new queens do not duel, the worker bees will act directly as judges and drive away whichever "queen" they deem unqualified.

If the driven-out queen still has the strength to fly, she will leave the hive with a portion of the bees, "splitting off" to start a new home.

There is another way to split: when there are too many bees in the hive and it becomes too crowded. The worker bees will build queen cells at the edges of the frames, urging the queen to go lay eggs there. Once the new queens hatch, the worker bees again decide which queen should leave the nest and form a new colony.

Humans will guide the queen driven out of the hive and the bees that followed her into a new hive, letting them reproduce in the new hive.

This is "splitting the hive."

The appearance of two queen cells in the brood area of the Territory Three hive shows that the worker bees believe the old queen's pheromones have weakened, and a new queen will definitely hatch within half a month.

In other words, the bees in this shed may go from one hive to two, and Xia Qing needs to start preparing a new hive.

The nectar source plants in Territory Three can only support one hive. Once the colony moves into the new hive, Xia Qing will trade them to Tang Huai—this is the order decided by drawing lots among the allies who wanted to trade for Green Light bees.

Tang Huai has already built a beekeeping greenhouse in Territory Two and planted nectar source plants.

After finishing her observation of this frame, Xia Qing carefully put it back and pulled out the next one.

The heavy feel of this frame delighted Xia Qing, because it was a honey-storage frame—the heavier the frame, the more honey could be harvested.

Ignoring the few greedy bees crawling on top, Xia Qing held the frame with one hand and used the other to grip a clean, sharp uncapping knife, slicing off the thin layer of pale yellow cappings sealing the honey comb so the honey flowed into the extractor drum. She then placed the frame on the rack inside the extractor's drum and turned the handle on the outside of the barrel, using centrifugal force to spin the honey off the frame.

After extracting the honey, Xia Qing put the lightened frame back into the hive and took out the third frame.

The hive sent over from Hui Six Base contained only two frames, with the bee population kept at around two thousand—this was to control the colony's combat strength.

When a colony's population exceeds 5,000 bees and high-quality nectar sources are insufficient, the colony's quality declines. Once the queen evolves, she will drive the worker bees to attack humans, triggering catastrophic consequences.

But the bees in Territory One and Territory Three don't have this hidden danger, because they protect the hives with yi-stone and provide the bees with ample nectar sources. So the beekeeping team in Territory One increased the number of frames in the hive to three.

Under the care and intervention of professionals, this newly added frame near the hive entrance also became a honey-storage area.

Xia Qing placed the third frame inside the extractor's drum, sliced off the cappings with the knife to spin out the honey, and then returned the frame to the hive.

Then, Xia Qing happily carried the extractor out of the beekeeping greenhouse, went into the small room beside it to take out a clean honey jar, and after opening the valve at the bottom of the extractor, the flowing honey passed through a filter screen and into the jar.

After carefully tending nectar source plants for three months, Xia Qing's first honey harvest yielded 800 grams of pure Green Light honey and 180 grams of a mixture of beeswax and honey.

She admired it contentedly for a while, then pressed the walkie-talkie button and asked calmly, "Is Third Brother there?"

Hearing Xia Qing come online, the allies all pricked up their ears.

More than ten seconds later, Zhang San's listless voice came through. "Speak."

"I just harvested Green Light honey. Should I bring you a jar now?"