Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence

Chapter 690: Chapter 58: Luoteng Canyon Flower Fields and the Territory’s Honey Industry (Part 3)

Sister Hibraya was no exception. She was a nun of the Dawn Church and also the village chief of Hokelov Village in the Luoteng Canyon. Her attire was not luxurious; instead, it was clearly made from patched-up cloth. She wore many cloth bags and tools around her waist, looking every bit like a kind elder skilled in agriculture and animal husbandry.

She showed no fear in front of Su Li, the Lord. Once summoned, she calmly began her introduction: ”Lord, in Luoteng Canyon, we have a total of 430 beehives. Since we have abundant sources of pollen from orange blossoms, lavender, and the rose fragrance in the orchards, our queen bees produce in great quantities. We continuously sell queen bees to help more territories in Hesse set up beehives.”

”The queen bees produce in great quantities?” Su Li asked, ”In what aspect do you mean?”

Hibraya opened the cloth satchel beside her, which contained a small cage made from grass and straw, and displayed it to Su Li, saying, ”It means in various aspects. Each beehive contains one or two queen bees; situations where two queens coexist or alternate are possible.”

”But generally speaking, one queen bee is enough. If a new queen emerges, the original queen will take some worker bees and swarm. We sell these queens to farmers in need at 10 Silver Coins each and guide them in raising the beehives.”

The situation of bee swarming is even simpler than Hibraya explained. Generally, an experienced beekeeper can guide farmers in swarming and provide new farmers with several queen bees and corresponding thousands of bees.

Because the queen bee lays 1500 to 2000 eggs per day (equivalent to her body weight), when a queen is lost, the worker bees quickly expand the hive and urgently nurture new queens from female larvae by feeding them royal jelly, turning them into queens.

Thus, with so many beehives, Luoteng Village makes a considerable profit every quarter by selling queen bees and honey to all estates and villages in the Hesse Territory.

Just selling 10 queens equals 1 Golden Crown. But usually, a farmer would not just buy one when wanting to raise bees; they generally construct 3 to 6 beehives.

From this perspective, Luoteng Village’s profit is actually quite high.

Any Holy Land of the Dawn Church can significantly boost the local village’s income.

Of course, their earnings do not stop there; Hibraya continued, ”On the other hand, thanks to sufficient flowers and pollen, each of our beehives produces more than 90 jin of honey!”

”That much?” Su Li raised an eyebrow with a smile, ”That number is truly astonishing.”

Sister Hibraya replied calmly, ”Basically, a beehive’s yield can be between 20 to 60 jin. Professional apiaries can increase the annual yield by over 40% through mobile chasing of flowers. However, we don’t need to move because Luoteng Canyon is blessed by the Goddess, and the dense concentration of orange blossoms, lavender, etc., can basically ensure the highest yield.”

”Those farmers who come to buy queen bees also have orchards at home or large fields of wildflowers, canola fields, and other plants near their villages.”

”I see,” Su Li nodded. He had seen large fields of canola in the territory. This year, the territory had transformed large expanses of fertile land into cash crops, with canola and sugar beet being some of the main ones. They are indeed suitable for hive expansion, and there are actually many forests around the territory, where one hectare of linden trees can support collection by 50 hives.”

Su Li asked, ”How are the honey prices?”

Speaking of this, Sister Hibraya shook her head with regret and said, ”Lord, this is precisely what we’re concerned about. Honey prices haven’t been able to rise. Currently, a jar of honey is priced even less than a ceramic jar. We can only sell at a relatively profitable price when a trade caravan visits. At the moment, we can only maintain a price of 1 Silver Coin per jar, though we much prefer to sell directly in barrels, about 30 jin, priced at 10 Silver Coins with the oak barrel included.”

Su Li nodded; that price is indeed low. He recalled that on Earth, a jin of pure, natural honey would cost at least 50 yuan. Some unscrupulous merchants mixed water and certain cutting-edge technology and craft, and a jin would still cost 20 to 30.

Comparatively speaking, Luoteng Village’s price is even cheaper than fully industrialized honey production.

A beekeeper managing 6 hives earns just slightly more than an ordinary farmer, even when calculating using the yield in this Dawn Holy Land; they manage more, with honey income being only double that of a farmer.

It truly is not a hugely profitable industry.

Sister Hibraya sincerely said, ”Lord, in fact, honey can be regarded as a specialty of our territory. We earnestly request you to attract more trade caravans to find more trading routes for our honey. I believe with the beautiful flower fields of Luoteng Canyon, the produced honey will taste exceptional. Even if the price doubles, it could still sell.”

Finishing her words, she gestured to the villagers behind her and said, ”Bring a piece of honeycomb for the Lord to taste.”

This was the best opportunity to ask the Lord to help them find a market. The villagers immediately brought over a piece of honeycomb. It was unlike ordinary honey, appearing as a faceted, crystalline mass resembling a miniature Amber Palace, covered in milky-white beeswax on the surface, with golden honey flowing inside.