Beekeeping Helps Alleviate Poverty in Remote Villages

Photo/text by Ke Hao & Zhang Huakui

Shi Chengqiang, a technician, checks beehives on a cliff of Moon Bay in Guangshan Village of Zhushan County. These 200 beehives formed the first “cliff wall bee farm” in this county竹山县擂鼓镇广山村月亮湾的石壁上，技术员石成强查看悬挂的蜂箱。竹山县首个“崖壁蜂场”落户擂鼓镇广山村，首期投放蜂箱200个

It was a day in early summer.We saw several dozen beehives lined up one after another on a cliff in the deep mountainous forest of Yaozhuang Village in Zhushan County,northwest of China’s Hubei Province. Having parked his motorcycle, Quan Jun, a villager,put on a bee worker hat, squatted down by a beehive and carefully opened the cover to check the honey production, as he was taught by a technician. He slowly took out a wooden frame filled with golden combs covered with bees, honey shining and dripping off of it.

“This honey is made by local bees, and is worth more than foreign bee honey. When the market is good, one jin (equal to 500 grams) is worth 100 yuan. I just sold a bit more than 300 jin,and made more than 30,000 yuan out of it.” Quan Jun told us with a smile.

In 2016, Quan Jun, who’s from a poor family and had been working outside his hometown,returned to his village. He tried to raise pigs and cattle by borrowing money, which didn’t work out well for him. In 2019, the Chinese honey bee farming industry was introduced to the village. He decided to give it a go and started keeping 110 beehives for other poor families in the area. After reproduction and swarming,the number of his beehives has increased to 180. He became a famous local figure, known as the“Big beekeeper.” This local bee he refers to is the Chinese honey bee, while the term “foreign bees”refers to foreign species.

“My beehives can be found everywhere on the Huanglong Mountains. Without the poverty alleviation team, I couldn’t have achieved this much.”

In Zhushan County, there are many other beekeepers who have benefited from beekeeping,much like Quan Jun. Last year,the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) Poverty Alleviation Team in Zhushan distributed 3,000 boxes of Chinese honey bees, which were locally reproduced and cultivated,to 39 villages in 17 townships,and indirectly increased 5,000 families’ (including 1,500 poverty-stricken families’)production and income by an average of 4000 yuan per household per year.

Technicians deliver the new-style beehives with movable combs to families in need 技术员将新式活框蜂箱送给贫困户

初夏，竹山县擂鼓镇腰庄村山林深处的一片坡地，几十个蜂箱依次排开。村民全军停好摩托车，戴上蜂工帽，走到一只蜂箱旁蹲下，按照技术员教的方法，小心翼翼地打开盖板检查产蜜情况。随着一片木框被缓缓取出，金灿灿的蜂巢上布满了蜜蜂，蜂巢里的蜂蜜晶莹剔透。

“这些都是土蜂子酿的蜜，比洋蜂的蜜值钱，行情好的时候一斤100块钱。我刚卖了一次蜜，300多斤卖了3万多块钱。”全军边说边笑。

2016年，外出打工的贫困户全军返回村里，借钱养猪养牛，日子过得紧巴巴的。2019年，中华小蜜蜂养殖产业政策推广到村里，他抱着试试看的念头，开始代养周边贫困户的110箱，经过繁殖分箱，现在变成了180箱，成为当地小有名气的“养蜂大户”。这种中华小蜜蜂就是他所说的“土蜂子”，“洋蜂”则是些外国飞来的品种。

“背后的黄龙山上，到处都有我的蜂箱，要不是有扶贫队，我今天这个局面是不可能有的。”

在竹山县，像全军一样从养蜂中尝到甜头的蜂农还有很多。去年，国家烟草专卖局驻竹山县扶贫队将本地扩繁培育的3000箱中华小蜜蜂蜂种，发放到了17个乡镇39个村，间接带动5000户农民（其中贫困户1500户）增产增收，户均年增收4000元。

竹山地处秦巴集中连片贫困地区，是国家级深度贫困县，也是南水北调中线工程重要水源涵养区和江汉平原的重要生态屏障，开发多方面受限，许多工业项目进不来，多年来发展受到限制。

Cooperative staff come to help collect raw honey for families in need合作社工作人员上门为贫困户采集原蜜

Zhushan is located in the contiguous poverty-stricken area of the Qinling and Daba Mountains. It is a national-level county of extreme poverty, yet it is also an important water conservancy for the central route of the South-North Water Diversion Project as well as an important ecological barrier of the Jianghan Plain. Due to these factors, many industrial projects cannot be conducted here, and local development has been restricted in many ways. As a result, it has an underdeveloped economy.

In 2013 the STMA was paired up with Zhushan in the poverty reduction program. Since then tobacco planting has helped to lift tobacco farmers out of poverty.Yet there are more mountains than farmlands in Zhushan, so the development of the tobacco industry is also restricted.

The poverty alleviation team noticed the beehives scattered in the mountains during their field investigation. It turned out that this is an important habitat for Chinese honey bees. With more than 100 kinds of honey producing flora, which cover an area of more than 2 million mu (1 mu is about 666 square meters),continuous bloom time and a long flowering period, this area makes an ideal spot for beekeeping.

Moreover, beekeeping has always been a local tradition here,which never expanded on a large scale as an industry, since most beekeepers still follow small-scale traditional ways.

In 2018, field visits and scientific investigations by relevant experts showed that the existing honey-producing flora could support 100,000 bee colonies, while at present there are only 10,000 in the whole county. Therefore, Zhushan has a great prospect for developing beekeeping industry.

When Chinese honey bee farming was established as the featured industry for poverty alleviation in Zhushan, the promotion process was not easy.In order to help poor families master modern beekeeping technology, the poverty alleviation team organized and trained 15 beekeeping experts,carried out beekeeping skills training for 2,200 people, built 39 demonstration areas for the Chinese honey bee industry,adopted the development model of “capable person leading +tobacco industry supporting,” and had subsidized 600 extremely poor families in the county to purchase beehives so far.

Jinyeqing Honey Factory produces high-quality honey 金叶情甜蜜工厂生产出高品质蜂蜜

自2013年国家烟草专卖局定点帮扶竹山以来，烟叶种植帮助贫困烟农100%脱贫。但竹山山多地少，烟叶产业发展受限。

扶贫干部调研过程中，群山中零零散散放置的蜂箱引起了他们的注意：原来这里是中华小蜜蜂的重要生活区，境内有蜜源植物100多种，其中天然野生蜜源植物200多万亩，分布广，花期长，主要蜜源花期衔接好，是蜜蜂养殖最佳场所，而且当地一直有养蜂的传统，因多数蜂农以传统养殖为主，养蜂一直未形成规模。

2018年，通过相关专家实地考察和科学论证，现有蜜源可支撑蜂群10万群，目前全县蜂群只有1万群，竹山县发展养蜂产业大有可为。

中华小蜜蜂养殖被确定为竹山的特色扶贫产业，但推广并不容易。为让贫困户掌握科学养蜂技术，扶贫队组织培养了15名养蜂能手，开展了2200人次的科学养蜂技能培训，建成39个中蜂产业示范村，采取“能人带动+烟草扶持”发展模式，并资助全县600户深度贫困户购置蜂箱。

通过“联合社+合作社+基地+农户+订单”的形式，标准化养蜂得到普及。截至目前，全县蜜蜂饲养量达3万箱，年可生产新鲜蜂蜜40万公斤，实现产值6000万元，成为脱贫致富的“甜蜜”产业。

与腰庄村相距不远的广山村月亮湾扶贫易迁安置点，一间宽敞洁净的工厂格外显眼。这里是竹山第一家有蜂蜜加工资质的工厂，展示间里摆满了各种不同规格、包装精美的蜂蜜产品。“在这里加工蜂蜜附加值提高了很多，即便在疫情期间，产品也供不应求。”国家烟草专卖局驻竹山县扶贫队干部、挂职副县长王玲介绍，扶贫队正联合中国农业科学院蜜蜂研究所在竹山创建“全国蜂业示范县”，打造蜜蜂小镇、蜜蜂文化产业园、蜜源植物景观园等10家蜜蜂休闲文旅基地，实现传统养蜂业向休闲、度假、养生产业升级。

“马上可以开着新买的货车去拖蜂箱了，日子越过越有奔头了。”刚获得驾照的全军告诉我们，他已与10户贫困户达成协议，新增代养50箱中华小蜜蜂。

A beekeeper checking the reproduction of bees in the breeding farm繁育蜂场的蜂农查看蜜蜂的繁殖情况

Through the model of “co-op+ cooperative + base + farmers +orders,” standardized beekeeping began to gain popularity. Now,the county has 30,000 bee colonies, which can produce 400,000 kilograms of fresh honey annually and generate value of 60 million yuan. Beekeeping has become a real sweet industry,which is lifting the locals out of poverty and leading them towards affluence.

A spacious and clean factory is particularly prominent on the resettlement site of the poverty alleviation program in Moon Bay of Guangshan Village, not far from Yaozhuang Village. This is the first honey-processing factory in Zhushan. The display room is filled with honey products of various specifications and complete with nice packaging.“Processing honey locally has greatly increased its added value.Our product is in short supply even during the epidemic.” Wang Ling, the deputy head of Zhushan County and a member of the STMA poverty alleviation team,said that their team is working with the Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to establish a “national beekeeping demonstration county” in Zhushan. 10 bee-theme leisure and cultural tourism bases will be built, comprising of bee town, bee cultural industrial park, and honey-producing flora garden, to eventually achieve the upgraded status from traditional beekeeping to a comprehensive industry of leisure, vacation, and health.

“Soon I’ll be able to drive my new truck to get more beehives—my life is getting better and better,” Quan Jun told us. He has just got his driver’s license and signed a contract with 10 poor families to keep 50 more boxes of Chinese honey bees for them.

About Chinese honey bees

There are mainly two kinds of bees in China,namely Italian bees and Chinese honey bees(Apis cerana). Italian bees are also called Western bees. They are larger in size and high yielding, generally suited for flower-chasing mobile beekeeping. The vast majority of honey in domestic markets is Italian bee honey. The Chinese honey bee, also known in China as local bees, is a native bee species of China. It is the main pollinating insect for traditional crops as well as forests of multiple and mixed species. It was called “Baihuadan” (literally meaning the treasure for all flowers) in the Compendium of Materia Medica, and generally kept in virgin pollution-free forests. Since the Chinese honey bee is good at collecting nectar from scattered and various flora and takes a longer time to ferment its honey, the honey is considered more natural, green, and organic.

After the introduction of Western honey bees into China at the end of the 19th century, the number of Chinese honey bees decreased sharply. In 2006, the Chinese honey bee was included in the national protection list of livestock and poultry genetic resources of Ministry of Agriculture. Due to its unmatchable advantages in using scattered and sporadic honey-producing flora, strong collection capacity, high utilization rate, long periods of honey collection, strong adaptability, resistance to mites and diseases,and low consumption of feed, it is very suitable for settled farming in the mountainous areas of China. Consumers have a preference for its honey, whose price is several times that of Italian bee honey.

Crystal clear honey dripping from raw wax comb晶莹剔透的蜂蜜从原蜜块上滴落

中华小蜜蜂

中国境内主要有意大利蜜蜂与中华小蜜蜂两种。意大利蜜蜂又名意蜂、西蜂，个头大、产蜜能力强，一般追随某种植物的花期移动放养，市场上绝大多数蜂蜜均是“意蜂蜜”。中华小蜜蜂又称中蜂、土蜂，属中国独有蜜蜂品种，是以杂木树为主的森林群落及传统农作物的主要传粉昆虫，《本草纲目》中称其为“百花丹”，一般在无污染的深山老林中不移动放养，善于采集种类多而零星分散的蜜源，酿蜜周期长，所产蜂蜜属天然绿色有机食品。

19世纪末西方蜜蜂引进中国后,中蜂数量锐减。2006年，中华小蜜蜂被列入农业部国家级畜禽遗传资源保护品种。由于中蜂有利用零星蜜源植物、采集力强、利用率较高、采蜜期长及适应性强、抗螨抗病能力强、消耗饲料少等外来蜂种无法比拟的优点，非常适合中国山区定点养殖。土蜂蜜受消费者偏爱，其售价是普通蜂蜜的数倍。