Why Zhou Chengwei's Sweet Business Is So Sweet

From a "stay-at-home guy" to the chairman of a cooperative with an annual output value of more than 7 million yuan.

From knowing nothing about bees to becoming a well-known local beekeeping expert.

From learning, exploring and mastering nutritional crossbreeding of bees to creating his own "one-comb breeding method" for bee reproduction and a harmless induction technique for controlling cotton bollworms.

Zhou Chengwei, a 2014 graduate of Sichuan Agricultural University, is the chairman of the Ya'an Duoying Bee Breeding Cooperative and the person in charge of Honey-Collecting Town. In 2016, the cooperative he founded produced more than 100 tons of honey annually and generated more than 7 million yuan in revenue, increasing the average income of 102 cooperating farming households by more than 30,000 yuan each.

Finding the Right Direction and Launching a Sweet Business

"Playing games, watching movies, skipping breakfast, ordering takeout at noon, ordering takeout at night." When he first entered university, Zhou Chengwei's life was simple and boring. "I knew this state was very bad, but at the time I had no direction and could not make any big changes, so it seemed I just let myself carry on willfully."

In June 2013, Zhou Chengwei decided to change this state. "I chose agriculture in the first place so I could start a business easily. I had to do something!" So Zhou Chengwei told his roommate Wu Xiong about his idea of starting a business. "Let's keep bees!" After gaining Wu Xiong's support, Zhou Chengwei found teacher Yang Mingxian from the college. After a conversation, the matter of keeping bees was settled just like that!

Zhou Chengwei dug the ground, drove stakes and built sheds on the farm, and began raising the first batch of bees. Taking care of the bee colonies every day, handing out flyers and selling honey, a simple yet fulfilling life began.

Choosing beekeeping as a startup was an idea Zhou Chengwei got after learning in class that beekeeping has low costs, quick returns and is relatively little affected by market changes. Two months of beekeeping experience made him realize that beekeeping required a relatively small investment and had good prospects, and a bolder idea emerged.

On January 16, 2014, the Duoying Bee Breeding Cooperative was established in Xiaba Village, Duoying Town, Yucheng District, Ya'an City.

Independent Innovation and Development of Core Technology

The first problem after establishing the cooperative was choosing a site. Large bee colonies need to go out to chase flowers and honey, but the base still needed some bees for beekeepers to communicate and learn from in normal times, and Chinese bees are also best kept at a fixed location, so site selection was especially important. The surrounding air and water quality had to be good, and there had to be uninterrupted nectar source plants. After traveling all over Yucheng District and the surrounding counties, Zhou Chengwei finally chose Xiaba Village in Duoying Town, Ya'an's Tibetan tea village.

"Beehives are easily damaged by cotton bollworms, which has always been a headache for beekeepers, and there is basically no way to deal with it." But Zhou Chengwei had his own unique method. He entrusted a pharmaceutical company to make a "hotbed" suitable for cotton bollworms to live in and placed it at the bottom of the beehive. "With the hotbed, they will not harm the beehive, and I only need to regularly clean the hotbed and the cotton bollworms that make their home on it." Zhou Chengwei introduced his little invention with satisfaction. "This physical solution will not have a chemical impact on the bees, and in terms of cleaning up cotton bollworms, the effect is also very good."

Winter is the bee breeding period and also the bottleneck period for beekeeping. Usually, the bee survival rate is very low, and basically only 1 comb can survive. For Zhou Chengwei, who had a formal background in breeding, this was a small problem. His self-created "one-comb breeding method" solved this problem very well. Under the same conditions, using the "one-comb breeding method" can ensure the survival of at least 9-10 combs.

Selecting and Breeding Superior Bees to Increase Honey Production

After solving the problems of cotton bollworms and winter breeding, how to increase honey production became Zhou Chengwei's new problem. Zhou Chengwei first confined the queen bee to prevent excessive reproduction, and then thought of the hybrid vigor he had learned about in school. However, the Chinese bees (native bees) and Italian bees (Italian bees) he raised could not be directly crossbred. So he thought of nutritional crossbreeding. He used royal jelly brewed by different worker bees of Italian bees to feed the larvae of Chinese bees, achieving nutritional crossbreeding. Sure enough, honey production increased significantly. "I had only heard of nutritional crossbreeding before. We figured it out ourselves. As far as I know, no one in Sichuan has done it." Zhou Chengwei said proudly.

In addition, Zhou Chengwei also went to Yunnan, Hainan, Zhejiang, Gansu and other places for field investigations and to purchase queen bees for direct crossbreeding with native bees. The high-quality bees after crossbreeding were then used by the cooperative's farming households for expanded production.

Integrating with Beekeepers, Little Zhou Becomes Senior Brother

To expand the breeding scale, Zhou Chengwei decided to teach beekeepers supporting beekeeping techniques for free and provide superior queen bees. He first guaranteed the purchase of honey at a minimum price and then gave a second rebate at the end of the year. In addition, he also sought government beekeeping subsidies for the beekeepers and handled beekeeping-related certificates. This decision greatly increased the enthusiasm of the beekeepers, and the beekeeping scale expanded rapidly.

Recalling the early days of the cooperative, many beekeepers did not trust this young man who had just graduated. When they had good beekeeping experience, they would also "hide it away," and they were unwilling to say much about what was on their minds. Zhou Chengwei had no choice but to visit them every day. When talking with them and when they were busy with farm work, Zhou Chengwei took the initiative to help the beekeepers with their work. Over time, everyone recognized him and also recognized the cooperative.

Now, with the continuous development of the beekeeping business, Zhou Chengwei has registered his own trademark, "Honey-Collecting Town." Zhou Chengwei has also changed from "Little Zhou" in everyone's words to "Senior Brother." Zhou Chengwei said, "This is everyone's affirmation of my work."

Honey Paired with QR Codes Makes Food Safety Visible

Next month, the cooperative will begin using a pre-purchase model, adopting a method of direct connection with customers, livestreaming the situation at the base throughout the entire process as well as the honey collection and packaging process, and recording all production information of the honey. "Customers only need to scan the QR code on the packaging to know the entire production process of the honey."

Zhou Chengwei introduced that last year, "Honey-Collecting Town" participated in the second "Made in China" Qatar Exhibition, and recently another express delivery company took the initiative to seek cooperation.

"Cultivating does not necessarily bring harvest, but if you do not even believe in yourself, then there is no value in making the effort." When talking about the future, Zhou Chengwei's face showed a bit more determination.