Close-up of the 'secret' of bee hunters in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - These days, many people in the mountainous districts of Nghe An are entering the honey bee hunting season. When hunting bees, sometimes they have to fast all day, forgetting their hunger, waiting for the bees to arrive.
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| In recent years, due to fluctuating weather, erratic rain and cold,honeybeeGoing to the edge of the forest early, so the time to hunt bees also comes earlier, and there are more bee hunters. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| People's experiencebee huntingshows that the warm sunny days appearing between long cold air waves, or the "stormy" days from warm sunshine preparing for the monsoon season are the best time to hunt bees. Each bee hunter usually carries from 2 to 5 tubes of bait. Photo: Huy Thu |
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In recent days, in the communesborderIn Thanh Chuong district, bee hunters come from districts inside and outside the province such as Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Nam Dan, Vinh city and Huong Son district (Ha Tinh)... Among them, some people hunt bees "impromptuly" to raise them, some people hunt bees professionally to sell them. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| In places where bees visit, bee hunters bring bait tubes and hang them on fences, cow and buffalo pens, cliffs... Photo: Huy Thu |
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Hunting bees in groups is quite fun, but the probability of finding bees is low, so people who go “sneaking” – going alone, going deep, often have a chance to find bees. In the photo: A person hunting bees alone hangs a bait tube on a tall tree in the middle of a tea hill. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| The most exciting stage is the stage of catching the bees - the bees do the reconnaissance mission. Hearing that someone has caught a bee, the bee hunters call each other to bring tubes and rackets to catch the bees. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| Everyone tried to catch a bee to put in their tube, hoping that this bee would call troops to visit the tube and land. The process of catching bees here and there led to disputes and arguments. Photo: Huy Thu |
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| The process of bees visiting the tube is quite “complicated”, they come to “examine” many times, each time bringing a certain number of “troops”. Depending on the weather conditions and the number of bait tubes, the time to visit the tube will be long or short, sometimes only a few dozen minutes, sometimes lasting 3-4 days, even weeks. In the photo: A bee hunter did not have time to take down the bait tube, so the bees visited the tube right on the road. Photo: Huy Thu |
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Generally, the more bait tubes, the longer the time to visit the tubes. The bees have not "landed" yet, the hunters have not returned, everyone is hopeful. They are persistent, hard-working, sitting and watching in the midday sun, forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep, waiting for the bees to "land". Photo: Huy Thu |
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| After inspecting the tube, among dozens, hundreds of bait tubes, the bees only choose 1 tube. From above, the bees come down like rain and "land" on the designated tube. The bee chooses whichever tube it chooses. This year, the storms have lasted for a long time, making bee hunting difficult, so the price of seed bees is also slightly higher, each bowl of honey costs about 100-120 thousand VND. Each seed bee colony can measure about 2-6 bowls. The lucky person can hunt about 50-70 bee colonies and earn tens of millions of VND. Photo: Huy Thu |
| Bustling honey bee hunting season. Video: Huy Thu |
