Honeybee Garden

Happy Farm (快樂蜂場) is situated in Maokong’ Muzha District near the Camphor Trail, an area blessed with some incredibly picturesque rural scenery. Established by honeybee expert Mr. Wang Ying-zhang (王英章) on his retirement, the farm is an apiary and teaching center that is home to tens of thousands of honeybees, both indigenous Taiwanese honeybees and Italian honeybees.  

The structure of honeycomb is an area that most people show extreme curiosity towards and Wang Ying-zhang uses his own uniquely humorous style of teaching to answer visitors’ queries. Mr. Wang said that the structure of honeycomb is divided into three general sections: the upper honey storage area, the lower brood-raising area, and the central pollen area. The pollen area is used to segregate the upper and lower spaces, which are responsible for carrying out different tasks. Taiwanese wild honeybees consider limitations in hive space and therefore tend to stop collecting nectar before they make large amounts of honey. Italian honeybees are different in this regard and have no restrictions on their nectar-collecting period, sometimes producing a great excess of honey.

For these small honeybees, the number one enemy is the Asian giant hornet, which makes surprise attacks on hives and kills honeybee larvae. In response to such attacks, Wang Ying-zhang uses a small fishing net to catch the hornets, which are then placed into a bottle of Chinese rice wine to produce an age-old Asian tonic. 

Honeybee Garden

URL：https://www.peopo.org/news/321311

(以下是中文對照)

蜜蜂花園

照片

台北市木柵貓空有一條樟樹步道，沿途充滿著農村意象的風景，附近有一處蜜蜂花園，孕育著成千上萬隻的台灣野蜂和外來的義大利蜂。這裡是養蜂達人王英章先生的快樂蜂場，同時也是他退休後從事養蜂教學的自然教室。

一般人對於蜂巢的結構感到好奇，王英章以幽默詼諧的口吻為學員解惑，他說一般蜂巢的構造可分為三大塊，上半部為儲蜜區，下半部為育子區，中間為花粉區，以花粉區做為區隔帶，以確定蜂巢上、下半部的任務空間。台灣野蜂採蜜會考量蜂巢的空間有限，因此，採到一個程度就會適可而止。義大利蜂則不一樣，採蜜時期不知節制，容易因為採蜜過量而撐死自己。

對這群小蜜蜂來說，他們的頭號敵人是中華大虎頭蜂，會意外出沒在蜂巢附近咬死幼蜂，這時候王英章會用捕撈網為小蜜蜂除害，並且將中華大虎頭蜂放入藥酒的玻璃瓶內做為泡酒的材料。