Forty degrees. The bees are bearding on the front of the hives to cool them. A good sign, I think. 21 kg a hive. We sold out by the fifteenth of September. The price this year: 31 som for sainfoin and 35 for flowers. I did not raise it for the neighbours.
Forty-nine years yesterday. I went up as always. A young man was there with a camera from the university, to ask the old ones for their stories. I told him mine. It took an hour and he took notes and did not interrupt. That's all.
A very dry year. The mountain flowers burned in July, there was little nectar. 9 kg a hive. We will sell less and keep the best for ourselves. The price will go up. I am sorry.
The bees did not complain. They never do. They simply leave.
No bazaar, no bus, no one comes to the yard. I stand at the gate with my mask and the buyer stands two meters away and I put the jar on a stone. Tilek makes the deliveries by bicycle to the houses along the road and writes down the numbers.
The old people say honey is a medicine. In this year every old person wants honey. I do not argue.
Tilek put the Tulpar on my phone (I have a phone since last year). Now he has made me a channel called "Mamat's honey". It has 80 followers, mostly Gulmira's customers and Gulnaz's friends in the hospital. I do not understand how it works. People write "how much?" and I answer with a photograph of the price written on a cardboard.
I sold 40 kg in a week, from my yard, without leaving the apiary.