The story of beekeeper Zheng Beilu dancing with bees
Zheng Beilu is an ordinary farmer. In recent years, he has devoted himself to research and invented various bee-series products under his own brand. Not only has he become wealthy through scientific beekeeping, but he also joined forces with beekeepers from various places to establish the largest beekeeping professional cooperative in Jinhua City, leading the beekeepers around him onto the road to prosperity.
An "indissoluble bond" with bees
"Honeybee babies are born in December, slowly grow up under the care of honeybee nannies, and begin learning to collect nectar. In three months they can grow from infants into the 'pillars' of the hive." When Zheng Beilu, head of the "Bee Imperial Physician" breeding professional cooperative in Wucheng District and a beekeeping king, talked about the bees he raises, a kind of fatherly love showed in his eyes. Old Zheng said that after more than 30 years of beekeeping, he has come to regard the bees as his own children.
"I never could have imagined that my life would form such an indissoluble bond with bees." Looking back on more than 30 years of beekeeping, Zheng Beilu said. In 1975, Zheng Beilu, who came from a carpentry background, developed the idea of keeping bees while making beehives, so this young man in his early 20s exchanged all his family possessions for 20 boxes of bees. The endless pursuit of flowers destined a beekeeper's life to be forever on the road. Over more than 30 years, Zheng Beilu drifted from place to place with his bees, traveling throughout the country.
"In the first two years of beekeeping, all the income went into expanding the operation, and the family barely had enough to eat." said Fan Xiujuan, Zheng Beilu's wife. In the early 1980s, honey was as cheap as 4 mao per jin, and still no one wanted it. In 1982, the couple and their companions took a full three train cars of honey to Guangzhou to sell. The beekeepers who went with them, in pursuit of economic gain, mixed white sugar into the honey. This was exposed with a single test using "Yidi Ling," and the buyer gestured to wave them away. Fan Xiujuan stood up and said loudly, "The honey we produce is solid in quality!" With that, she insisted the buyer test their honey. The buyer tested it, and indeed the quality was good. In the end, for 160-jin barrels of honey, the buyer immediately took 7 or 8 barrels at 5 yuan per jin. This became the first big business deal the Zheng Beilu couple had made since entering honeybee breeding. Afterward, the reputation of Zheng Beilu's high-quality honey spread widely, turnover grew year by year, and the scale of breeding grew larger every year. The couple thus came to be known as "Royal Jelly Husband" and "Royal Jelly Wife." In 2002, Zheng Beilu returned to his hometown of Jinhua. The rapidly developing economy and suitable environment let him see new business opportunities.
"Dancing with bees" creates a big enterprise
In April 2006, Zheng Beilu and some beekeepers worked together to establish the Jinhua City "Bee Imperial Physician" Bee Industry Cooperative. At the beginning, everyone just wanted a place to communicate and to have someone to look out for them while away. Later, with the collective efforts of the many members, they began to create their own brand, build their own processing plant, and open up domestic and international markets.
Zheng Beilu introduced that he had traveled north and south keeping bees for 30 years, and at the same time had run a bee product specialty store on Jiangjun Road in the city for 10 years, unchangingly selling single bee products such as honey and royal jelly. Although a certain consumer group had formed, the market was too limited. After the cooperative was established, they not only obtained the QS market access certificate, but also developed more than a dozen new products such as royal jelly honey tangerine, comb honey, royal fetus wine, honey fruit jelly, and bee pollen facial cleanser. At the same time, the products' market share also continued to expand, and they had already entered the Walmart supermarket in Guangzhou. The cooperative also directly exported products such as royal jelly and honey to Libya, Japan and other places. Under Zheng Beilu's leadership, in just a few years, the cooperative created multiple "firsts." The first bee product cooperative in the province to establish a risk fund system, and also the one with the most members. There are now more than 500 member households, 84 of which have paid into the risk fund; the first bee product cooperative in Jinhua City with complete equipment and an integrated production, processing, and sales chain. There are nearly 500 pieces of equipment of all sizes, with a disinfection workshop, a filling workshop and a complete processing assembly line, and it independently developed more than 40 new varieties such as royal fetus wine and bee comb essence; the first bee product business in Zhejiang to sell through the "Farmers' Mailbox." It achieved online and export sales, with average annual turnover reaching 2 million.