College graduate returns home to Pengyang County, Ningxia, to start a business by building hives and attracting bees, embarking on the road to prosperity

In Xiaoshigou Village, Mengyuan Township, Pengyang County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, Chen Ze'en shows his honey products (photo taken June 21).

In Xiaoshigou Village, Mengyuan Township, Pengyang County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, Chen Ze'en inspects beehives (photo taken June 21).

Chen Ze'en, 26 years old this year, is a beekeeper well known far and wide in Pengyang County, Guyuan City, Ningxia. Having just graduated from university, he did not stay in a big city to strive, but instead spotted a business opportunity and returned home to start a business.

In the summer vacation of 2014, Chen Ze'en discovered at a classmate's family breeding farm that the Chinese honeybee (Apis cerana) was not, as farmers in his hometown said, low in honey production and impossible to raise on a large scale; in fact, as long as the methods are scientific, it can bring very good economic returns.

In 2015, Chen Ze'en successfully persuaded his father to invest all the family savings and all the money he had earned from part-time work outside during university into the beekeeping business. By learning breeding techniques in Chongqing, Sichuan and other places, Chen Ze'en changed his hometown's primitive method of destroying hives to take honey and adopted box hiving, which not only allows regular honey harvesting and higher yields, but also protects and strengthens the bee colonies. Chen Ze'en said: "Raising bees in Pengyang County has unique advantages. As the effects of returning farmland to forest and grassland have continued to show in recent years, the ecological environment has improved, and my Chinese honeybees can taste a hundred herbs and gather nectar from a hundred flowers."

In 2015, Chen Ze'en raised 100 boxes of Chinese honeybees, produced more than 2,000 jin of honey, and earned a net income of 150,000 yuan. Up to now, Chen Ze'en has raised 200 boxes of Chinese honeybees, produced 4,000 jin of honey, and achieved an economic income of more than 400,000 yuan. He has also motivated more than 100 households in Shuangshu Village to raise more than 600 boxes of Chinese honeybees, regularly holds beekeeping technique training for the beekeepers, makes home visits for technical guidance, and teaches beekeeping techniques hand by hand.