Bee King Yang Zhongqing's Sweet Beekeeping Business
The "Bee King's" Sweet Business
-- The Entrepreneurial Story of Yang Zhongqing of Qingfeng Ecological Breeding Professional Cooperative
Wang Fang, Xie Shenwang
In Luxi, Hunan, if you want to taste authentic, original, fragrant and sweet honey, your best bet is to find the "Bee King." Ask any beekeeper in Luxi about the "Bee King" and virtually everyone knows who he is: Yang Zhongqing, chairman of Qingfeng Ecological Breeding Professional Cooperative.
Xinnü Peak in Hongtuxi is located at the end of the Wuling Mountain Range, where peaks rise one after another, green trees provide shade, flowers bloom in every season, and the environment is beautiful. At the foot of the mountain lies a natural, ideal spot for ecological beekeeping, with rows of beehives neatly placed under the shade of the trees. A middle-aged man with a ruddy face and a refined appearance was busy inspecting the hives. Seeing us arrive, he hurried over to greet us. He turned out to be the "Bee King" that everyone talks about.
The "Bee King" told us that together with more than 70 cooperative members, he keeps a total of more than 1,200 hives of bees. Annual sales of bee colonies bring in more than 100,000 yuan, and sales of bee products such as honey, beeswax and bee pollen bring in more than 4 million yuan. Today, beekeeping has become the sweet business through which he has turned his life around and pursued his life's ideals.
When talking about his entrepreneurial experience, Yang Zhongqing naturally has his own share of bitterness and hardship. In 2001, he suffered his first setback in life when the grain department was restructured and he lost his job at the grain station. That period was the darkest time of his life; for a while he felt listless and his spirits were low.
With his family's help, he finally pulled himself together and began working hard to find a new job. He once worked as a temporary worker and also tried marketing ponkan mandarin oranges... After many attempts and much thought, he discovered that beekeeping is a "short, quick and flat" path to wealth with little investment, quick results and low risk. Perhaps this was his chance to change his fate.
He acted as soon as he decided. Beekeeping sounds easy, but it is hard to do. At first, because he did not understand the techniques, neglected management and lacked experience, the more than 10 hives of bees Yang Zhongqing had introduced came down with varroa mite disease. The young bees developed poorly, adult bees died in large numbers, and his apiary nearly suffered total disaster. Relying on a stubborn unwillingness to admit defeat, he kept fighting after repeated failures and never gave up. He bought many books on beekeeping techniques and humbly sought advice from experts and learned from mentors. Hard work pays off. After countless falls and comebacks, in 2005 he kept 20 hives of bees, produced more than 2,000 jin of honey, and earned more than 50,000 yuan. Yang Zhongqing's sweet business had finally taken its first successful step.
After years of exploration and learning, Yang Zhongqing developed many ideas about the beekeeping business. He realized that small-scale, scattered beekeeping and traditional operating methods could hardly meet market needs, nor were they conducive to the development of the beekeeping industry. In 2012, under his leadership, more than 10 nearby specialized beekeeping households established Luxi County's first beekeeping professional cooperative -- "Luxi County Qingfeng Ecological Breeding Professional Cooperative." Through working together as a group, they achieved the sharing of information, technology and benefits. That year, the scale of beekeeping reached more than 310 hives, with sales revenue of more than 930,000 yuan.
Now that he was wealthy himself, he did not forget his fellow villagers. Whenever anyone asked Yang Zhongqing for advice on beekeeping techniques, he was glad to teach them. Tian Zulin, a villager from Lishiping Village in Xixi Town, had been a well-known poor household in the village just two years earlier, and his whole family depended on him earning money by doing odd jobs away from home. By a chance encounter, he was fortunate enough to get to know Yang Zhongqing. Yang Zhongqing introduced him to beekeeping as a path to wealth, personally took him to visit the apiary, taught him ecological beekeeping techniques, and helped him firm up his confidence in using beekeeping to build a better life.
"Without Master Yang's patient guidance, I could not have taken this path of escaping poverty and achieving prosperity through beekeeping." When talking about how beekeeping brought him wealth, Old Tian was full of emotion. At first, he knew nothing about basic beekeeping techniques such as honey extraction, colony division and pest and disease control. It was Yang Zhongqing who came to guide him every few days, helping him gradually master the skills of beekeeping. Once, the bees in his apiary developed swarming fever. Fortunately, Yang Zhongqing arrived in time and showed him on the spot how to adjust the combs, resolving the crisis in his apiary. Today, his beekeeping operation has grown to more than 50 hives, with an annual income of more than 40,000 yuan, making him a local expert at getting rich.
After more than 10 years of struggle and hard work, Yang Zhongqing has become a "Bee King" in the truest sense. He has good beekeeping skills, rich experience and a warm, generous heart, and he continues to attract more and more people to join his beekeeping team. At present, the cooperative has grown to 72 member households, with an annual beekeeping scale of more than 1,200 hives, radiating outward to drive more than 430 surrounding farming households to develop ecological bee farming.
"What our cooperative mainly sells are green, pollution-free, safe and reassuring honey products, with no additives whatsoever, so consumers can buy with confidence and eat with peace of mind." While showing us around the apiary, Yang Zhongqing did not miss the chance to promote his bee products. At present, his cooperative produces and sells a variety of products such as honey, beeswax and bee pollen, and has successfully registered the "Xiang Qingfeng" brand honey trademark. Mainly through the "Internet + micro-business" platform, the products are sold all over the country, with annual sales of more than 50,000 jin of bee products and profits of more than 3.2 million yuan.
Today the "Bee King" is even busier. He can be seen hurrying along the roads of townships such as Pushi, Wuxi, Tanxi, Xixi and Xinglongchang. Delivering bee colonies to people's doors and guiding beekeepers in scientific, ecological beekeeping have become his main tasks now. "In 2016, the county provided 800 yuan per household in poverty alleviation subsidies for precisely identified poor households for one hive each. This favorable policy has brought good news to us beekeepers and will certainly drive the rapid and healthy development of the beekeeping industry." From these words of the "Bee King" Yang Zhongqing, we can see the prospects and hope of the beekeeping industry.