"Ugh~"
"Meow~"
Seeing Lu Fangfang's disgusted expression, Xiao Hua felt even more embarrassed. It lowered its head and quickly put its paws away.
"Xiaohua, it's okay, it's not that smelly, it's just that I can't stand the smell."
Lu Fangfang smiled and waved her hand.
She plopped down on the tarpaulin and rested for a while.
Hmm, Xiaohua's paws have a strong smell, but it's not entirely the smell of saliva.
It's kind of funny when I think about it. Why was she smelling other people's paws?
Seeing Xiao Hua with its head down and hands tucked in, as if blaming itself, Lu Fangfang reached out, pulled it over, and petted it.
After a while, Xiaohua finally became lively again.
It nestled comfortably in Lu Fangfang's arms, snuggling closer.
Lu Fangfang smiled and scratched its head. This little guy is just like a child; he can be coaxed and calmed down.
She turned around, grabbed a handful of grass seeds, rubbed them together, blew off the husks, and then examined them carefully in her palm.
"It looks like it will be ready in another day or two of drying."
The grass seeds delivered by Team Six are quite dry, but there's a lot of fluffy grass. Drying them here will let the wind blow them away.
After drying for a day or two, they can pack them into burlap sacks and store them for the quails to eat.
By the end of the year, the farm will have two thousand female quails, which means they will eat a lot more, consuming 2.7 times the amount of feed they produce per day.
In other words, if a quail produces 40 catties of eggs a day, it needs to be fed more than 100 catties of feed, and the grass seeds also need to be harvested vigorously.
After picking a handful of wildflowers, Lu Fangfang raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight, then looked towards the distant grassland where soldiers were still training.
By noon today, they will be able to eat quail eggs from the farm.
Thinking about it, she felt quite accomplished.
"Little Lu? Little Lu? Come quick, the quail has hatched."
Zhao Lanying's excited shouts rang out from the breeding farm.
Lu Fangfang was taken aback, and then quickly stood up.
She patted the little flower and quickly said, "Go to the wasteland to the north and call Sister Shufen. She knows what happened."
"Meow~"
Xiao Hua immediately turned around and ran towards the wasteland.
Lu Fangfang clapped her hands and hurriedly returned to the breeding farm.
Inside the incubator, chirping sounds filled the air as clusters of baby quails hatched from their shells, as if they had made a pact to do so.
There were too many quails, and they were quite noisy.
"Xiao Lu, should we pick them out of the incubator now?"
"No, wait until their feathers are dry before picking them up. The quails are too weak right now."
Lu Fangfang quickly stopped Lan Ying's sister-in-law. There was no use in them being anxious now, so they could only watch quietly.
After a while, Wang Shufen arrived in a hurry.
Little Flower followed behind her to the gate of the farm, glanced inside, but didn't go in.
She walked to the neighboring meadow on her own, and Xiaohua lay down under the small shed to guard the grass seeds again.
"Hey girl, what happened?"
"Sister Shufen, don't worry, it's only just hatched."
The incubation room was full of quail eggs and baby quails, and it felt a bit crowded when Wang Shufen came in.
After a while, the first batch of hatched quails finally spread out their feathers, looking round and adorable.
"Chirp chirp~"
"Chirp chirp~"
Upon seeing this, the three immediately picked them up from the brooder.
They were counting the number; a brooder box could hold a maximum of two hundred quail chicks, any more would be too crowded.
Soon, one brooder box was full.
"Sister-in-law Lanying, go out and get another incubator. Sister Shufen, let's lift this one and put it against the wall."
Lu Fangfang greeted them.
She and Wang Shufen lifted the brooder box and placed it against the west wall, then she turned on the power.
She glanced at the brooder box; the light bulb inside was already lit, emitting a bright yellow light, and the baby quails were all huddled under the bulb. Only then did she feel relieved.
The first brooder box was full, and soon the second and third boxes were also full.
The three had a clear division of labor and worked efficiently in the incubation room.
Soon, they had filled eight brooder boxes. In the incubator, all that remained were eggshells scattered on the floor and shivering, still-wet quail chicks.
"Hey girl, there are quite a lot of quails that haven't hatched yet this time."
Looking at the still unhatched quail eggs, Wang Shufen had given up hope.
These quail eggs are useless even after peeling.
Even if it survives, the little quail is weak, so it's better to just eliminate it.
"There's nothing we can do. We're incubating too many eggs at once, and there are bound to be some we can't take care of."
Lu Fangfang looked at the remaining fifty or sixty quail eggs and felt a little regretful.
After waiting for quite some time, the remaining quail chicks' feathers dried, and the three of them quickly picked them up and put them into two brooder boxes.
They were busy for more than half a month, hatching a total of more than 1,900 quail chicks using ten brooder boxes.
As for the remaining unhatched quail eggs, they can only be considered a loss.
It was terribly hot in the incubator, and Lu Fangfang checked each of the brooders one by one.
Seeing that everything was normal, she invited the two of them to go outside.
After a busy morning, she was soaked in sweat, so she took out her handkerchief and quickly wiped herself dry.
Luckily it's noon and not cold outside, otherwise I would have definitely caught a cold.
"Sister Shufen, I'll have to trouble you tonight. It's cold at night, so the fire can't go out."
"Don't worry, little sister, I'll take good care of them even if I don't sleep."
Wang Shufen nodded. After resting for a while, she went to the wasteland again.
She could still make two more trips to harvest the rapeseed in the field, so she needed to finish quickly so she could catch up on some sleep in the afternoon.
"Xiao Lu, do you think the warm water I poured is okay?"
Zhao Lanying came over carrying a basin of water.
Lu Fangfang put her finger in to test it, then nodded.
"Sister-in-law Lanying, start by feeding them water from the first brooder. Once they've drunk from it, then move on to the next one. There's no rush."
"Okay, I understand."
Sister-in-law Lan Ying carried warm water into the incubator.
Lu Fangfang took a breath and then went to the storage room to prepare the quails' first meal.
She scooped out a few scoops of cornmeal, then took a few oxytetracycline tablets, crushed them, and mixed them together.
She bought this in the county town before; it has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. Since it was the first time she had hatched so many quails, she was afraid something might go wrong, so she added a little bit of this.
She clapped her hands and went to the incubator to feed the baby quails warm water with Sister Lan Ying.
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