The Next Idea To Get Money
Apple Bloom was helping outside with Big Mcintosh as they were both helping harvest the apples to sell. As they worked Granny Smith came walking over. They both stopped what they were doing and went to go help her.
"I don't think y'all should be walking due to y'all bad hip Granny Smith." Apple Bloom said with a concerned expression.
"Never mind that and y'all come over to the house your sister wants to talk to you." Granny Smith said. She walked back to the house and Apple Bloom and Bic McIntosh followed her with curious expressions in their faces. When they got inside Applejack was smiling so excitement while Twilight had a box in the table in front of her.
"Hey guys will you all take a seat? I have a plan that will grow our farm!" Applejack declared. Big Mac and Apple Bloom were cautious about hearing this new idea as they wondered if the plan was going to be feasible. They both sat down as They looked at the box in front of them they noticed that they could hear a buzzing in front of them.
"What's in the box? I'm honestly unsure if Ah want to know." Apple Bloom asked.
"Ah have decided to start a Honey Bee farm!" Applejack proudly declared. This announcement shocked Apple Bloom and Bic Mcintosh. Apple Bloom then realized what was inside the package. Bic Mcintosh sat back and covered his mouth with is hand while in thought.
"But...were the Apple Family, we produce apples not honey. Besides wont those suckers sting y'all? Apple Bloom complained. Applejack sighed as she knew she was expecting this reaction.
"Look just hear me out. Honey Bee farms have huge success across Equestria and people that we know own them including Fluttershy obviously. The honey could bring us more money along with the Apple accessories we already sell. Just think of all the honey that we could produce!" Applejack declared.
"Go on...." Big Macintosh said while he was beginning to get curious about Applejack's idea. Applejack brought out a huge graph chart
"Look at how much honey Ponyville Fresh Farms produce and look how much honey they take in! We are only producing one half of that with the Apple selling business. If we combine our Apple selling with honey producing....we can bring in more profit shares! Don't you see!? And besides it would be for a good cause."
"And y'all sure that you can start something like this? We don't have any knowledge on how to handle them. Apple Bloom said. Applejack chuckled and motioned to Twilight.
"Your going to be very knowledgable on it once I teach you. I'll help you with everything. Trust me I have extensive information on this business. We can start setting up everything and I can start teaching you everything once you guys agree to it." Twilight said with a smile.
"So what do you guys say? Is it a go?" Applejack asked with a proud look on her face. Bic Mcintosh frowned as he examined the box.
"Applejack even though Ah don't speak a lot Ah have always tried to speak my mind from time to time about certain things you do or certain things other people do so this is one of those times. This might seem like a good idea to you but you did not check with us first about this so I dot like that but since that's done and over with I'll just get on with my main concern. Did you think about Apple Bloom's safety before buying Honey Bee's? Huh? I know honey is a good money maker but what about Apple Bloom?" Big Mac ranted.
"Don't worry we understand your concern but you don't have to worry. Apple Bloom should be smart enough to stay away unless she's learning what do do and has a beekeeper suit on." Twilight said. Apple Bloom nodded.
"Yeah I ain't stupid or anything. I know to stay away from it. I would like to learn about them more though." Apple Bloom said. Applejack smiled with pride and ruffled her sisters hair.
"Isn't she great?" Applejack said. Big Mac continued to frown with concern and Applejack sighed.
"Come on Big Mac. It will be worth it in the end! Just think of all that honey that will be made. We can give the customers new and exciting options instead of apple pie and apple fritters and apples and applesauce! Apples apples apples! That's all we sell! Can't we get a little variety!?" Applejack ranted. Twilight patted her back to calm her. Applejack tried to breathe to calm herself. Big Mcintosh sighed and sat back while he thought about it. He looked at Granny Smith who shrugged.
"Hey y'all don't look at me. I'm going to get senile in a few years. You guys are going to have to start making decisions for yourselves. This decision falls on you Big Mcintosh. I'm staying out of this one." Granny Smith declared. Big Mac covered his hands in his face as he thought. He sighed one final time and spoke with a serious tune.
"Alright I'm not going to be using my single answer technique because I have some thing to say. I'll allow this honey business on one condition which will be making sure that Apple Bloom doesn't get stung to many times or swarmed. If she gets stung but it's rare sometimes then that's okay but if she gets harmed to seriously then I'm shutting it down! I'm serious Applejack! Apple Bloom's safety and Granny Smith's safety is paramount! Do you understand me!? Big Mac ranted as his voice was very angry and serious.
"Alright alright! Nothing is gonna happen! Calm down! Celestia's sake your acting like I'm dooming everybody!" Applejack exclaimed while rolling her eyes.
"You damn right nothing is gonna happen! I'm not joking around! This business is done if we all get into to much danger! Do you got that!?" Big Mcintosh said.
"Relax she's gonna wear a bee suit if I'm having her over there and teaching her honey extraction. And if she isn't then she's gonna be away from them. Stop acting like your planning for her funeral and if she gets stung then big deal! We have tweezers so we will pull one out if she gets one in her skin and she will go on her merry way! Damn you sound like I'm preparing her funeral or something. Sweet Celestia." Applejack exclaimed. Big Mac sat back and huffed as he had gotten himself very angry and was now trying to calm down as he finally had his answer.
"Fine! I'm allowing it then. Thank you." Big Mcintosh said. There was an awkward silence between them all and then Twilight spoke.
"Okay then....anyway I brought some educational materials just to...educate you guys on what you have to do including Apple Bloom because she will grow up and probably have help out with the hives." Twilight explained. Big Mac nodded.
"First off when Applejack came to me about her idea we formed it together for a while. I helped her order a queen and a few workers. Once we got them unboxedsince we ordered then we waited to introduce a queen and once we did....we grew the colony and now the colony has.....probably around....oh I'd say about 20,000 Bees." Twilight said. Big Mac almost fell over.
"What!? But how y'all gonna manage that!?" He exclaimed.
"Yes sometimes they grow to over 80,000. Relax there's only a few things that need to be done when managing a hive and extracting honey. I'd explain it but I have trouble doing that so that's why I had my friend Fluttershy come over here!" Twilight said Fluttershy came walking up to Twilight.
"Y'all didn't tell us Fluttershy was here! What was that about a dramatic entrance for comedy?" Apple Bloom asked. Twilight shrugged. Fluttershy stopped and stood by Twilight while waving.
"Oh great a science lesson. This should be good." Applejack said with annoyance while she was preparing herself.
"It's not like that don't worry. She will give the easy lesson." Twilight said. Fluttershy blushed.
"Hey guys...um so when Twilight came over to my place to ask if I could help I said yes and once she explained what Applejack wanted to do I decided that I wanted to help her in anyway I can so she told me that I could come over and just talk for a few moments and demonstrate on what to do." Fluttershy said in a clear shy voice.
"We're all ears just tell us what we all need to know. Just don't go to into it." Big Mcintosh said.
"Don't worry I'm only going to explain a bit and then demonstrate it. Honey Bee colonies or hives in general which ever you want to label them or made up of a hierarchy consisting of a queen and worker drones who are pretty males. It's like....Celestia and her subjects only unlike the bees....she doesn't have sex with her male workers." Fluttershy joked.
"Did you just seriously make that joke in front of Apple Bloom?" Applejack asked with annoyance. Fluttershy laughed nervously.
"Sorry....anyway the Queen lays all the eggs. That's her one main duty...the rest of the duties fall on the male workers. The female workers take care of the Queen or are guards. Forager bees go out and collect pollen or nectar. Following me so far?" Fluttershy said.
"Yeah pretty much. One question...how many honey bee colonies exist in Equestria?" Applejack asked. Fluttershy shook her head as that was one tough question to answer.
"Boy...I honestly have no idea. Appleloosa has like a 1,000 colonies while Ponyville has less then that. And that doesn't count all the honey bee farms that are around." Fluttershy said.
"Wow." Applejack exclaimed.
"If we didn't have bees would Equestria die off?" Apple Bloom said.
"Well if they did die off a lot of foods we have now wouldn't be here if they all went extinct. So....yeah in a sense we would be screwed but maybe we could be able to manage that but hopefully it never comes to that. Plus if they did go extinct the element of harmonya would be unable to bring them back no matter how powerful their magic is." Fluttershy said.
"Why is that?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy shook her head.
"The elements of harmony can't produce natural nature it can only produce magic to prevent catastrophes or defeat villains. They just can't save bees unfortunately. So we unless we find a way to clone honey bees we have to take care of honey bee colonies." Fluttershy said. They all nodded in agreement.
"We'll take care of ours that's for sure!" Applejack exclaimed. Fluttershy smiled.
"Anyway. Since you all know about that I'll go into how bees are born and then we can get down to the most important stuff which is actually managing the farm." Fluttershy said. They told Fluttershy to go ahead so Fluttershy went into extensive detail about how honey bee's were born and how they mated once that was done she let Twilight speak.
"Now that we got all of that stuff out of the way can anyone tell me what this is?" Twilight said as she held up a large looking can with a nozzle. Apple Bloom raised her hand. They all felt like they were in a class being taught by Twilight.
"It's a bee smoker obviously. It's used to calm the bees so that farm owners or bee keepers in general can work with the hive. In a short sense it means that it keeps people from getting the shit stung out of them." Apple Bloom remarked.
"Apple Bloom what did ah say about curse words?!" Applejack scolded. Apple Bloom shrugged.
"She's right that's its main function. The suit protects you to. That's another thing you want to use getting honey from the apiary which is a fancy word for the place where bee hives are kept." Twilight said. Twilight grabbed a picture and showed it to them.
"If they get agitated use it. Also work quickly because the effects will wear off. Now...this here is a picture of a honey comb. This is what you want. This is your money maker. The honey that you need comes from here. You take a frame which has honey on it and you remove the cappings. Some people break them but I suggest simply removing them. Once that's done the frames are placed in a honey extractor which I brought with me and the honey extractor spins the frames which leads to....well leads to you getting honey.....not really a hard process to understand I've seen nine year olds learn how to extract honey from frames. Anybody can learn beekeeping....that's about it really...the instructions on how to sell honey can be found in some booklets I packed which you can find yourselves.
"Now I'm going to show you how it's done." Twilight said. Twilight went over and grabbed a beekeeper suit and put it on while explaining how one would put one on. Once she did she gave Applejack and Big Mac and Apple Bloom ones and Applejack looked at Apple Bloom.
"Uh...Twilight do you think she will be safe....or..." Applejack asked. Twilight smiled and gave a suit to Apple Bloom.
"Applejack listen...I'm not going to let anything happen to her. If she remains calm which I'm sure she will do better than you at then you shouldn't worry and neither should she. You can trust me Applejack. Apple Bloom will be perfectly safe. If she gets stung I got medicine and tweezers with me but the suit should be able to stop that. And if it gets out of control I'll just use all the elements to safely make them freeze. Okay?" Twilight said. Applejack took a deep breath and nodded. Fluttershy went over to Twilight.
"I have a spa date with Rarity so I can't stay sorry." Fluttershy said. Twilight told her that it was okay and that she can go she Fluttershy waved goodbye and left.
"Alright then. This process should be fairly quick. Now some might get on us but just remain calm and it should be fine. I'll get them off of us safely without harming them. I have the smoker so it shouldn't get that bad." Twilight said.
"Let's just get this over with." Applejack said with slight hesitation in her voice.
"It will be fairly quick. I don't want to spend to much time or the effects of the smoke will wear off and that will lead to them getting pissed off. And you don't want that to happen or your going to have a bad time. But don't worry I have the elects which can be used to as a last minute effort to make them temporarily sleepy in matter of seconds. Twilight said.
"And guys don't swat at them! Don't do that it will just annoy them even with the smoke. After I'm finished with this we will put up a fence to protect he bees from bears or other predators." Twilight said. Applejack prepared herself.
"I uh...have sow thing I forgot to do...uh..." Big Mcintosh began to say while sweat fell down his forehead. Applejack rolled her eyes.
"You don't have to stay here if you don't want to. Be my guest if you want to leave but Applejack will have to show you later." Twilight said. Big Mcintosh took off the suit and walked away very quickly.
"Scaredy cat." Applejack mumbled. Twilight laughed.
"It's alright you two can work with the hive until he gets over his fear then he can help." Twilight said.
"Alright we're ready Twilight. Open it." Applejack said. Twilight nodded and opened the hive. A bees started to fly onto them but Twilight reminded them to relax as she smoked the hive for good measure.
"Don't worry the smoke calms them. Always remember that when your working with the hive. I would still like to warn you about how you shouldn't wave your arms around either though as that might agitate them. Im going to get this over with." Twilight said. She took out a frame.
"All this stuff on the frame are caps This frame is ready to be cleaned off in a honey extractor as this hive has been active for awhile since I had been working on this hive for a few weeks." Twilight put it down and checked the other ones. Some weren't ready yet while others were but she decided to leave that job Applejack and her family.
"One more thing I should let you all know. Don't over harvest. There is such a thing. Don't harvest to early and don't take to much. Bees don't like it when you take honey from them its first year. Wait for a while. Patience okay?" Twilight said.
"Relax we will keep that in mind is that all?"Applejack said.
"Just hold on." Twilight said.
She smoked them off of themselves and was able to lead them back inside. Once she was done she closed it up looked at Applejack.
"Don't ever leave a frame out if the hive. Always put frames back once your done. Don't cheat either and harvest frames that are not sealed completely. And don't ever mix up your frames. Always put it in the same place. Okay?" Twilight said. Applejack nodded while she was almost shell shocked. Twilight noticed Applejack's expression.
"Applejack are you okay? You looked like you saw a ghost." Twilight said.
"I was getting scared their for a few minutes. Don't worry I heard what you were saying though. I'll keep that stuff in mind." Applejack said as she stared at the hive. Twilight laughed and hugged her.
"Don't worry about it you know what to do so you will get used to it. Honey bees are actually okay creatures. Yellow Jackets are the creatures you should be afraid of. Yellow Jackets are very awful insects and they will prey on your hives. Make sure to set up yellow jacket traps around the hive and your bees should be safe.
"Thanks so much for showing us this Twilight. You can set the hives over in the back of our barn their. I'll make sure Apple Bloom and her friends don't play around them." Applejack said. Twilight nodded and looked at Apple Bloom.
"What did you think Apple Bloom?" Twilight asked.
"It was scary at first but since I knew you were there with us I calmed down. I'll get used to this soon. If it means more money for us as well then I'm all in for helping if Applejack allows it." Apple Bloom said.
"You can help but I'll be there with you at all times Apple Bloom. Don't forget to keep your friends away from the colony. I don't want to be rung out by Rarity." Applejack said.
"Yeah Rarity will tear into your sister so please don't bring Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo there okay?" If they want to learn they can come to me and I can demonstrate safety when handling bees but until then keep them away from it." Twilight said. Apple Bloom nodded as she knew that she could do that. Twilight sighed as her work was done. She took off the suit and so did the two sisters
"Alright I think my work here is done. Good luck guys. You have my number so if you need help please don't hesitate to call. Applejack I'm going to give the elements of harmony for you to keep. I can teach you how to use all of them at once in order to calm the hive in case you are out of smoke. One use by the elements will make them fall asleep for a temporary time period so you can do your work." Twilight said. Applejack nodded and Twilight got the elements from her pocket.
"Please bring them back if we ever have a villain to defeat and once we defeat the villain you can take them again okay? Good luck with the honey business I'm sure it will work out. Alls you have to do is get the honey and package if and sell it. Trust me it sells better than apples." Twilight said. Applejack nodded and hugged her.
"Thanks Twilight. We will have to hang out again sometime soon." Applejack said.
"We will. All six of us will. Good luck Applejack make sure your family helps out as well." Twilight said. Applejack nodded and Twilight handed her the elements and left. Applejack smiled as she was so grateful for Twilight's knowledge and desire to help them.
After a few months of working with the hive the Apple family farm's honey sold very well. It almost sold even better than their apples. As the years went by Applejack and Twilight continued share the elements with eachother as Applejack needed them whoever she would run out of smoke. Applejack and her family managed the hive for years to come.
