Rare honey is a good way to make money, and there are ways to increase income through beekeeping

He was afraid of bees since childhood and would run away whenever he saw one. But fate had him living alongside bees for 20 years. Ordinary honey becomes endlessly varied in his hands. His ideas run wild, making bees obedient and building comb inside bottles. Cui Hongqi from Wuhu, Anhui, has kept bees for twenty years, moving from traditional to trendy, and relying on tiny bees, his annual sales have exceeded 10 million yuan.

Every year in March and April, golden rapeseed flowers bloom across the country one after another. Moving among them are not only tourists who love taking photos, but also a group of industrious little bees.

Bees make more than ten round trips a day to collect nectar. This 0.6 m tall beehive is their home, and this small wooden peg is the entrance. The nectar the bees collect is stored in these small hexagonal honeycombs, one cell at a time. The honey we drink is made by spinning the honeycomb with centrifugal force into this kind of liquid honey. But in Wuhu, Anhui, one man gets bees to build their comb inside glass bottles like this. What exactly is inside? If you want to take a look, you have to use a hammer.

Cui Hongqi: This bottle bottom is oval, see that? It grew right inside this bottle, the bees built it themselves along the bottle.

Reporter: Including this side, you can see it slowly attaches along the bottle wall.

Cui Hongqi: Let's keep tapping, okay.

This kind of comb honey looks novel, and many people feel it is different the first time they taste it.

Consumer 1: The honey bought in the market before was the kind you mix into water and drink. This is honey you chew and eat, very special.

Consumer 2: (Other) honey does not show this kind of honeycomb, it looks a bit untrustworthy. This kind looks more reassuring, more authentic.

Consumer 3: I have eaten honey, but never this kind.

Reporter: Is there any difference?

Consumer 3: It is chewy.

Comb honey, as the name suggests, is honey sold together with the honeycomb. This is nothing new either. You just cut down the honeycomb together with the honey and put it into a bottle. Very simple. However, the comb honey seen in Wuhu, Anhui, although also in a bottle, is different from before. The honeycomb is connected very tightly to the edge of the bottle, as if glued together.

Cui Hongqi: Look, after I tap it open, it is built along the bottle (the honeycomb). See, it grew on this bottle.

Reporter: Let me hold it, (one bottle) is so heavy. That means this whole piece is connected especially tightly and cannot move.

Cui Hongqi: It cannot move, it is already stuck. It grew entirely under this bottle bottom.

Reporter: The stickiness is really strong.

Making honey in bottles, how do the bees obediently crawl in? What exactly is going on? Even people who have kept bees for decades find this special honey rare when they see it.

Beekeeper: Made in bottles, never seen it.

Reporter: Is it rare?

Beekeeper: Never seen it. What? A gift for me?

Reporter: Let you take a look, do you think it is rare?

Beekeeper: Rare, honey made in bottles is rare.

Beekeeper Gao Zibao: This is relatively hard to make.

Reporter: Why do you say it is hard to make?

Beekeeper Gao Zibao: Because when you put the bottle into the beehive, the bees make it very slowly.

Beekeeper Hu Kunsheng: I had exactly this doubt. How could bees in this bottle be willing to crawl in and make honey inside? Among the ten households running around with us, none have it. Rare.

Many people are seeing this special comb honey for the first time. Local beekeepers told the reporter that to know the secret, you have to find one person. This person is no ordinary man. Locally, and even nationwide, many beekeepers know him.

Beekeeper: He is extremely impressive. Nationwide he is the "number one bee". For us to make this product, we all need his personal guidance. Without his guidance, we would not know how to do it.

Beekeeper Gao Zibao: He can imagine things we cannot imagine. He is capable. He does not feel like an ordinary person.

Beekeeper: Boss, he does very well here. He runs it quite well. These days he makes a lot of money.

Beekeeper Qian Zelin: In our beekeeping circles, basically everyone admires him. His mind turns fast.

His name is Cui Hongqi, the impressive man the beekeepers talk about. How to make bees brew honey in bottles is his secret. As soon as the reporter arrived to interview him, he busily made preparations, wanting to show the reporter how he gets the little bees to crawl into the bottles by themselves. Within a few minutes, during the preparations, an accident happened. The cameraman who was filming suddenly started taking off his clothes.

Reporter: Show everyone.

Cui Hongqi: Were you stung? If stung, pull the stinger out.

Reporter: Take a look, where is it?

Cui Hongqi: The bee is still inside.

Reporter: Where, where? Do not take it out yet, let us see?

Cui Hongqi: It has already fallen off.

Reporter: What did you put on it?

Cui Hongqi: A little royal jelly. He has already been stung once.

Reporter: Is this the bee that just stung him?

Cui Hongqi: No, he wants to perform for you how it stings.

Reporter: This still needs a performance.

Cui Hongqi: One sting from the bee, and the stinger is here.

Reporter: Just like this, oh my? You are not afraid of being stung now, right?

Beekeeper: Not afraid.

Although being stung by bees was a small episode during filming, the beekeepers are used to it. Every one of them has been stung by bees who knows how many times. But what many beekeepers do not know is that the leading big brother they now follow, Cui Hongqi, once reacted even less calmly at the sight of bees than our cameraman did after being stung.

Wife Gao Yumei: When he saw a beehive, he would walk around it. He was just afraid, hiding and running.

Reporter: That exaggerated.

Wife Gao Yumei: Really. He was unwilling to keep bees because the stings hurt.

Cui Hongqi: Every time after being stung, it first hurts, then swells, and looks awful. At that time I did not want to work in this industry.

Cui Hongqi was born in 1974 in Wuhu City, Anhui Province, into a beekeeping family. His parents and his three older sisters all made a living by keeping bees. In 1993, after graduating from high school, Cui Hongqi refused no matter what to be like his family. Besides being afraid of bees, he had his own ideas.