Chapter 246 (continued)
After chatting for a while, their plane took off on time.
Qing Mengzhu went back to her room to rest and took a nap. Then they arrived in Qiongwei City.
Ping Lin brought people to the airport to pick him and Mifeng up.
Staff and the beekeeping team carefully transferred the boxes of bees into the truck.
Ping Lin, watching from outside, asked Qing Mengzhu somewhat nervously, "Won't the bees suffer from acclimatization issues if we bring them here?"
Qing Mengzhu: "No, generally not. We took this batch of bees to Ye'erqingele to collect sunflower nectar before, and the bees adapted well."
Ping Lin: "I remember now, they sent us sunflower honey as employee benefits before. Sunflower honey is delicious, fragrant, sweet, and rich. I quite like the taste."
Qing Mengzhu: "Then the coffee honey certainly won't disappoint you either."
Speaking of coffee trees, Ping Lin said with pride, "I'm not bragging, but our coffee, no matter what it is, will never disappoint."
Qing Mengzhu and asked, "How are the coffee flowers blooming? Are there many flowers now?"
Ping Lin: "There aren't many yet, but they smell wonderful. Especially in the morning when the coffee flowers have just opened, the whole orchard is filled with their fragrance."
Qing Mengzhu: "That's an exaggeration, isn't it? A thousand-acre orchard, and the whole orchard smells of coffee flowers?"
Ping Lin confidently stated, "It's really not true; I didn't exaggerate at all. Once the flowers bloom, not only our orchard, but also the nearby orchards can smell the fragrance—it truly travels for miles."
Qing Mengzhu looked at him with a mixture of belief and doubt.
Seeing Qing Mengzhu's gaze, Ping Lin immediately pulled out his phone from his pocket. "It's true, yesterday Brother Mi Yao messaged me, asking if we've started planting jasmine in our orchard, saying they can smell the fragrance of jasmine there."
Qing Mengzhu glanced at Ping Lin and Mi Yao's chat history; the two were indeed discussing the scent of flowers.
Qing Mengzhu a little surprised. "The fragrance of flowers can travel this far?"
Ping Lin: "Yes, that's why I said the whole orchard smells of flowers."
As he spoke, Ping Lin said expectantly, "The fragrance of the flowers is so strong, the bees must be very efficient at collecting nectar. Will we have honey in as little as half a month?"
Qing Mengzhu: "About half a month, just enough time for the bees to collect honey once."
While they were talking, the staff quickly loaded the bees onto the truck.
After loading the bees onto the truck, they quickly returned to the orchard.
Qing Mengzhu realized on the way that Ping Lin was not exaggerating.
The aroma of coffee blossoms was indeed very strong; even when their car was still some distance from the orchard, the fragrance was carried by the wind.
The fragrance is rich but not overpowering; on the contrary, it smells wonderful, like some kind of high-end perfume.
Qing Mengzhu's first thought was to send these flowers for extraction, so that they could be used to make incense of very high quality.
The idea flashed through his mind.
He quickly put the idea out of his mind; compared to making incense, their coffee was more important.
The roads in the orchard have been improved in the last two years, so they can drive directly to the coffee grove.
Before coming here, Qing Mengzhu had only seen photos of coffee trees blooming online.
Through the internet, the coffee flowers look rather ordinary.
Upon arriving at the site, Qing Mengzhu was completely awestruck by the sight of the dense clusters of flowers on the coffee trees.
There are so many! These flowers are growing so densely, and they smell so wonderful.
The entire coffee grove has been transformed into a sea of flowers.
Qing Mengzhu stared wide-eyed for a moment before realizing what was happening, then called out to the staff behind her, "Xiao Lin, you can release the bees now."
Lin Jinghan and her team have a whole group of beekeepers, so Qing Mengzhu no longer needs to personally take care of the bees.
Hearing Qing Mengzhu call, Lin Jinghan replied crisply, "Coming! Let's settle the bees down before releasing them."
Qing Mengzhu: "Place them separately. Coffee buds have a short flowering period, so we need to hurry."
Lin Jinghan: "Okay, we'll handle it right away."
Wearing overalls, Lin Jinghan and her team quickly pushed boxes of bees deep into the coffee grove.
Once the bees are settled, they will open the hive and release them to collect nectar.
Qing Mengzhu glanced at the problem, waved her hand to indicate that she didn't need anyone to accompany her, and then walked into the coffee grove to observe.
He visited once a month ago, when the coffee trees hadn't yet blossomed, and their condition was quite different from now.
The coffee trees are now in bloom, with clusters of small white flowers on the branches.
No, they aren't entirely white flowers.
Qing Mengzhu took a few more steps and soon saw small yellow, red, and pink flowers.
These unusually colored coffee flowers may be affected by trace elements. Qing Mengzhu went up to take a look and found that the unusually colored coffee flowers were no different from other colored coffee flowers.
Once someone had walked deep into the coffee grove, Qing Mengzhu took out her phone and used the Mall Assistant to analyze the condition of the coffee flowers.
Based on his own analysis, he felt that these coffee flowers were still in the "Fine Grade+" range, very close to "Superior Grade- ", but this time they probably wouldn't be able to break through.
The coffees look great; the Mall Assistant's scan shows they're in top condition.
People shouldn't be able to do anything extra. Looking at the results from the Mall Assistant's scan, Qing Mengzhu decided to give them a moderate amount of fertilizer for the next period of time, and leave everything else as it is.
While Qing Mengzhu was analyzing the coffee tree, Lin Jinghan and the others released the bees.
A large swarm of bees buzzed and danced in the coffee grove, like tiny pieces of winged gold dust, a spectacular and beautiful sight.
Qing Mengzhu couldn't resist taking a picture with her phone and sending it to Ming Chunxi to share: [Look, our bees!]
Ming Chunxi: [Your photography skills are getting better and better.]
Qing Mengzhu snapped a few more photos of coffee flowers and sent them over: [The coffee flowers are beautiful too; there are not only white coffee flowers, but also many different colored ones.]
Ming Chunxi: [The different colored coffee flowers are so obvious, the orange-yellow ones are the prettiest. I wonder what the coffee berries they produce will taste like?]
Qing Mengzhu: [I can't imagine it either, but with the quality of our coffee, whatever the flavor, it will definitely taste delicious.]
Ming Chunxi: [Agreed.]
Qing Mengzhu: [Then I'll continue patrolling the coffee grove. Later, I'll go up the mountain to check on the water in the pond. If the water is okay, I'll fill it with some water to feed the bees.]
Bees also need to drink water, and their water requirements are quite high. When Qing Mengzhu and the others raise bees, they usually bring over some Spirit Spring Water or Spirit Pearl Dregs water to feed the bees.
Qing Mengzhu quickly went over to check on the condition of the pool.
The Spirit Pearl Dregs in the pool was still effective and didn't need to be replenished, so he scooped up a bucket of Spirit Pearl Dregs water and gave it to Lin Jinghan and the others to feed the bees.
As Qing Mengzhu walked through the orchard, she saw many free-range chickens running around.
These are local chickens.
After careful consideration, they decided to raise chickens instead of geese.
These free-range chickens are raised in the orchard. The orchard staff feed them twice a day, and the rest of the time they run around in the orchard, digging for earthworms and grass seeds to eat.
The free-range chickens raised this way tasted excellent. Zhou Yan was pleasantly surprised by their flavor and strongly requested that chickens be raised in the remaining orchards as well.
Therefore, they now raise more than 50,000 chickens.
These chickens are scattered throughout various orchards, and once they are ripe, they are caught by staff and sent to the farm.
At the same time, they have specialized partner hatcheries that incubate the eggs laid by the chickens, ducks, and geese they raise.
They've been raising poultry for generations now, and the taste of their various poultry has become increasingly excellent.
Similarly, Zhou Yan also developed various uses for eggs, including but not limited to sending them directly to the farm for frying and cooking, as well as various salted duck eggs, salted chicken eggs, and preserved eggs.