Hunting for Cerana Bees

Peter set out to buy bees with Asing, an Indian who has been honey hunting in his home state of Nagaland. The professional beekeeper recommended by a professor in the Agricultural University Beekeeping Department had no bees for sale, but Asing had heard of bees for sale in a mountain village north of Kunming.

After a two hour bus ride to Wuding and another two hours by minibus over terrible mountain roads, we arrived at the village in a beautiful mountain valley which reminded Asing of his home area. The villagers were Miao, except for one Lisu family.

The Miao and the Lisu are two of the many minority peoples of China. The crowning glory of the Miao women seemed to be their hair which they wear piled up on their heads, looking almost as if they are wearing a hat.

The Lisu have their own written language - “Fraser script” - invented by JO Fraser about 100 years ago and much easier to read than Chinese characters. The Miao have a similar script, probably created by Sam Pollard, although these villagers seemed to be saying that it came from the Rev. Berkeley (may not have the name right!). It was very moving to hear one of the Miao reading familiar passages to us in his own language.

Asing had phoned the Miao beekeeper to tell him we were coming but he was not at home, so we went on to another village where someone said there were bees, but no luck there either. As we walked, we kept stopping to visit homes or chat to people by the roadside, so it was supper time when we got back to the first village, and the Lisu family generously invited us in for a meal.

Meanwhile the beekeeper had returned. When he saw that a foreigner wanted the bees, the price immediately doubled from that agreed over the phone. Furthermore, the bees were not in hives but in hollow logs, a traditional method but not what we wanted. And he was going to have to remove the combs, including the brood (eggs and larvae), which would otherwise have broken as the minibus bounced around on the journey back to Kunming. Plus, Cerana bees have a habit of absconding, especially if they have no brood, so very reluctantly we returned empty-handed.

The journey home was a nightmare! The minibus had no full beam head lights and we would suddenly encounter a lorry parked in the road with no lights, seeing it only just in time to avoid a smash. The minibus engine kept cutting out and the driver had to stop at intervals to fiddle with the wiring or pour water into the radiator. Much of the road surface had been broken up by hundreds of heavy lorries so we had to go really slowly in those places. Also, our driver constantly overtook on blind bends, somehow managing to dodge a head-on collision with the lorries coming the other way.

We were most thankful when got home at one o’clock in the morning. No bees, and stomach upsets for several days afterwards, but a fascinating glimpse of another side of life in China.