Mountain God’s Forest Farm – CH65

Chapter 65: Tiger-Head Wasps

The two kissed beside the beehive, their lips filled with the rich, sweet fragrance of honey.

Ying Kongtu felt his face growing a little hot, yet he also found it especially fun.

After the kiss, the two looked at each other. Both of their faces were a little red, but their eyes were bright.

“We can’t keep kissing.” Ying Kongtu pressed his forehead against Wen Zhongshan’s. “We need to hurry up and get to business.”

Wen Zhongshan caught his wrist and, still unsatisfied, kissed him again. In a low voice, he said, “This is business too.”

“Hurry up and collect the honey.” Ying Kongtu smiled a little as he pushed Wen Zhongshan’s chest. “If we keep dawdling, we won’t make it back in time for lunch.”

The two straightened their clothes, tidied up the beehive again, and carried the honey to Bibi Mountain.

Ying Kongtu weighed the bucket in his hand. “I estimate that, excluding the weight of the bucket, there are about seven jin of honey.”

Wen Zhongshan took the bucket from him and carefully felt the weight. “I think it’s seven jin too.”

“That’s a little better than we expected.” Ying Kongtu glanced back at the beehive. “I wonder if they’ll produce even more honey once there are more nectar sources in the future?”

They had not cut all the honey, but had left enough for the bees’ daily needs.

Based on this estimate, during a season rich in nectar sources, one bee colony could probably produce about ten jin of honey a month.

Although this yield still could not compare to commercial honeybees, it was much higher than the honey yield of ordinary native bees.

If they cultivated them well, raising this batch of bees would be very promising, especially since this honey was so fragrant and delicious.

The bees on Bibi Mountain were also in very good condition. They cut about eight jin of honey there, even a little more than the honey from Wuchuan Mountain.

However, from the colony on Baogu Mountain, they only cut a pitiful three jin of honey.

Ying Kongtu almost suspected they had sensed wrong. Otherwise, how could there be so little?

A mere three jin. Even ordinary local bees in this season would not have only such a pitiful amount of honey.

Ying Kongtu inspected carefully and suddenly discovered, “It’s not just the honey. Isn’t the number of bees a little low too?”

All three of their bee colonies were strong colonies, meaning each colony had more than eight frames of honeycomb. The number of bees should be at least over twenty thousand.

By that standard, this colony on Baogu Mountain had far too few bees.

The bees on the honeycomb frames were sparse, with obvious gaps between them.

Ying Kongtu also saw some empty cells with no bees living inside at all.

This state was too abnormal.

Ying Kongtu sensed carefully and found that this colony was very healthy. There was no disease.

If there was no disease—

He swept a glance around the beehive.

The area around the beehive was clean. There were no bee corpses, and the colony did not look like it had been attacked. It seemed no natural enemy had visited either.

Then this was strange.

Wen Zhongshan was also checking. “It doesn’t look like a natural enemy came, at least not during this period. These cells have also been empty for a while. They aren’t empty because the bees went out to collect nectar.”

“Then why are there so few bees? Could a new queen have appeared in the colony, and the new queen took half the bees away?”

After making the guess, Ying Kongtu quickly rejected it himself.

“That shouldn’t be it. The ten frames aren’t even fully occupied. They wouldn’t split the colony that quickly. We come here every day to check, and we never noticed any signs that they were going to swarm.”

Local honeybees had strong survival abilities. Even if someone moved them near a home and they were considered “raised” by humans, in reality, they still took care of themselves and did not need people to do much.

Although Ying Kongtu had raised bees before, he still could not be called experienced.

After all, he had basically never taken much care of bees. At most, he used divine power to nourish them and strengthen their resistance.

The two circled the beehive several times, but still could not find the reason.

Wen Zhongshan pulled Ying Kongtu along. “Let’s go back and look up some information. See if we can find any clues?”

“That’s all we can do.” Ying Kongtu looked at the beehive. “Let’s go back first.”

The two had no experience, so after returning, they specifically asked an experienced beekeeper.

When the other party heard that their bees were not sick, yet their numbers had decreased by a lot, he said, “Could there be a powerful enemy near the hive? They sensed the threat, so they abandoned the nest and fled?”

The two of them truly had not thought of this possibility.

The beekeeper suggested that they investigate, especially to see whether there were powerful hornets nearby.

Hornets could fly very far, and they posed a huge threat to honeybees.

If there were powerful hornets nearby, the bees might abandon the nest and flee.

Following the beekeeper’s advice, the two took meat strips to Baogu Mountain and hung them near the beehive to lure hornets.

When hornets smelled the scent of meat, they would come over to feed. Then they could follow the hornets back to their nest and see what was going on.

The two crouched nearby and waited.

Ying Kongtu said quietly, “Do you think it’ll be hornets?”

“I haven’t seen any hornet nests recently, but we often see hornets when we patrol the mountains. There’s probably a nest nearby. We just don’t know where it’s hidden.”

“It definitely isn’t on Baogu Mountain.” Ying Kongtu was very certain. “I can sense that there’s no large hornet nest on this mountain.”

“Then it’s on a nearby mountain?”

“Very likely.” Ying Kongtu looked up at the mountain not far away and said softly, “My intuition says it should be on Tanyan Mountain.”

As they spoke in low voices, a hornet was indeed attracted by the fresh meat. It slowly flew over, landed on the meat, and began tearing and chewing at it.

As soon as Ying Kongtu saw it, he could not help lowering his voice and saying, “Good heavens, what a huge hornet!”

The hornet that had flown over should be an Asian giant hornet. It looked extremely large, with golden and black markings all over its body, giving off a metallic luster. Just one look was enough to make a person’s scalp go numb.

Wen Zhongshan often went into the mountains for missions, so he recognized it too. “It should be a type of tiger-head wasp. It’s even bigger than an ordinary tiger-head wasp.”

There were also many kinds of tiger-head wasps. The name referred to hornets with very strong venom. But among all tiger-head wasps, the one before their eyes was definitely the kind with the largest body, strongest venom, and highest aggression.

This tiger-head wasp looked so terrifying.

No wonder the honeybees had abandoned the hive.

With such a powerful natural enemy nearby, anyone would be afraid.

Ying Kongtu quickly said, “No, we have to follow this tiger-head wasp and find the nest. Even if they don’t harm the honeybees, leaving them in the mountains is too dangerous.”

Tiaozhu and the others patrolled the mountains every day. If they provoked hornets this vicious, they could easily be stung.

Even if Tiaozhu and Xian Niao were fine, Dart and Jingwei definitely would not fare well. If they were stung once, they would probably have to stay in the pet hospital for a long time.

Moreover, this hornet nest was not on Baogu Mountain. It was definitely on one of the surrounding mountains.

Recently, there were more wild vegetables, and there were also many people going up the mountains to gather them.

If someone were attacked by such vicious hornets, that would be a serious matter. At best, they would suffer minor injuries. At worst, they could die.

“It’s flying. Let’s go, follow it.”

While Ying Kongtu was thinking, the tiger-head wasp dragged the meat strip and flew up.

It could actually drag such a heavy strip of meat, making it seem even fiercer.

Ying Kongtu pulled Wen Zhongshan along to follow, trailing far behind it in an attempt to find its lair.

With their strength, they did not need to use any special means. They could simply follow from behind and would not lose it.

After following for a while, the tiger-head wasp slowly flew toward Tanyan Mountain.

The nest really was on Tanyan Mountain!

Ying Kongtu’s spirits lifted. They had guessed correctly.

There was indeed a powerful nest of tiger-head wasps on Tanyan Mountain.

They followed all the way. Before they even reached the vicinity of the hornet nest, they first heard a buzzing sound.

Ying Kongtu felt the buzzing sound was somewhat familiar. He pulled Wen Zhongshan and quickly stepped forward.

Passing through the woods, they immediately saw a swarm of bees fighting ahead.

The honeybees, whose bodies were mainly golden, and the tiger-head wasps, whose bodies were mainly black, were flying and fighting in the open space!

The ground was also covered with bee corpses—some honeybees, some tiger-head wasps—scattered like a layer of fallen nuts.

With just one look, Ying Kongtu understood why there were so few honeybees left on Baogu Mountain. Most of the honeybees had come here to fight!

It seemed the honeybees were very satisfied with the place they had chosen and did not want to leave, so they had fiercely come over to clear out the threats in the surrounding area.

And it was precisely because many honeybees had died in this war that there were so few bees left in the hive.

The sight of so many bees flying and fighting was extremely terrifying. Yet because both kinds of insects had sturdy, metal-like bodies, the fight had a peculiar beauty to it, strangely dreamlike.

Ying Kongtu pulled Wen Zhongshan along, both suspecting that they were dreaming.

Otherwise, how could there be such an extraordinary scene?

Author’s Note:

One day, Ying Kongtu rescued another tawny owl.

After the tawny owl recovered, it carried a mountain rat to Ying Kongtu’s house to repay the favor.

It started feeding Jingwei first, planning to feed the others once Jingwei stopped eating.

Later.

It fed one. Jingwei ate one.

It fed one. Jingwei ate one.

It fed one. Jingwei ate one.

After feeding it like this all night, by dawn, it was so tired it lay on the ground and could not move.

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