Zhang Hulan was amused by Xiang Chunhua and didn't know whether to say that Xiang Chunhua was stupid or that she had a big imagination.
Zhang Hulan said, "Let's make a heated kang and use it to hatch the chicks."
"Using a heated kang to hatch chicks? How do you do that?" Xiang Chunhua had never heard of hatching chicks without a hen.
Zhang Hulan didn't say much to Xiang Chunhua. She found Luo Changqi and asked him to call a few people to set up two warm kangs.
The heated kang has been built in the new house, which is almost finished, with only some furniture left to be made.
There are plenty of rooms, just find one in the yard.
Zhang Hulan didn't care about the heated kang. She and Li Xiang Chunhua went to see the chicks, ducklings and geese.
Zhang Hulan asked Xiang Chunhua to get some unwanted vegetable leaves, chop them up and scatter them on the ground. The chicks, ducks and geese all came to grab the food.
Zhang Xinyao and Zhang Xinyi squatted on the ground, looking at the little chicks and ducklings. They liked them very much. Small animals are cute, but they are not pretty when they grow up. Especially when they grow up and poop everywhere, leaving chicken and duck poop everywhere, then they start to hate them.
Xiang Chunhua said, "Sister, you have to be careful. Watch out for mice and weasels at night, and watch out for eagles and kites in the sky during the day. If you're not careful, they'll be caught."
That's right, there has to be someone watching day and night.
There aren’t many now, but in the future there will be thousands or tens of thousands, and even one or two people won’t be able to keep up.
But for this kind of work, you can just ask children to do it.
Zhang Hulan went to the field where lotus roots were planted. She looked around for a while and saw four children carrying dry manure with a scoop.
Zhang Hulan waved at them, "Come here, all of you."
The four children hurriedly put down their dustpans and ran over. They were all a little nervous and stood properly in front of Zhang Hulan.
Zhang Hulan asked: "What are your names?"
There were two children, Mingying and Gouzi, who were in Liu Cong's group, and the other child was probably the one who was questioned by Wu Deyong, and another child who was a little older.
Mingying was the first to answer: "Madam, my name is Mingying."
"My name is Gouzi." Gouzi replied.
The child being questioned by Wu Deyong immediately answered: "My name is Ah Shui."
The last child, "My name is Ermang."
Zhang Hulan nodded, "You guys follow me."
The four children followed Zhang Hulan towards the fish pond.
When they arrived at the fish pond, Zhang Hulan pointed at the chicks and ducklings and said to Mingying and the others, "I'll give you a job. You'll be responsible for taking care of these chicks and ducklings."
"Mingying, Gouzi, you are in charge during the day. You need to feed them during the day. Just like this, chop up the vegetable leaves and feed them. Also, make sure the chicks and ducklings are not caught by eagles or kites."
"A Shui, Er Mang, you are in charge at night. At night, your main task is to keep an eye on the rats and weasels."
All four of them nodded immediately, "Okay."
Zhang Hulan added, "There are rooms over here. You can move in. Mingying will live in one room by herself, and you three boys will live in another."
The four of them nodded immediately again, "Okay."
"Then Ah Shui and Er Mang, you can go to sleep now and come back to watch at night."
"Okay, ma'am." A Shui and Er Mang agreed immediately, and then went back to move their quilts and clothes to this room.
Mingying asked, "Madam, where can we get vegetable leaves to feed the chickens and ducks?"
Zhang Hulan said: "You can use the unwanted vegetable leaves in the fields to feed the chickens and ducks. When we raise more chickens and ducks in the future, I will ask the villagers to bring all the unwanted vegetable leaves to us."
Zhang Hulan immediately said to Xiang Chunhua, "Chunhua, I'll leave this to you. Tell the villagers that they can bring in any unwanted vegetable leaves they have. They can get one or two cents for a basket of leaves. The unwanted leaves will be thrown away anyway, so they will definitely be willing to exchange them for money."
"Okay, sis!"
Zhang Hulan continued, "In the future, Gao's father and son will send rice bran or other things, and you and your sister-in-law will hand them over to him."
Xiang Chunhua felt that she had been entrusted with an important task, and immediately assured her, "Don't worry, sister, I will definitely get it done for you."
The warm kang was set up in the afternoon. Firewood was burned overnight to dry out the moisture in the adobe bricks.
The next day, Zhang Hulan spread a layer of straw on the warm kang, placed the breeding eggs on the straw, and then covered them with a quilt.
The main thing is to control the temperature, and then turn the eggs over every day to ensure that the eggs are heated evenly.
Zhang Hulan took care of him personally in the first few days.
On the seventh day, Zhang Hulan asked Li and Xiang Chunhua to get an oil lamp, close the door, and shine the oil lamp one by one on the eggs that had been incubating for seven days.
Zhang Hulan held the egg with both hands and held it facing the oil lamp. She could vaguely see blood and embryo in the egg.
Xiang Chunhua asked: "Sister, what are you looking at?"
Zhang Hulan asked Xiang Chunhua to take an egg, and then imitated her by holding the egg towards the oil lamp.
"Did you see anything inside the egg?"
Xiang Chunhua was incredulous, "Sister, why can I see inside the egg?"
Li also held an egg up to the oil lamp and looked at it, but she saw nothing.
"Big sister, Chunhua, what did you see? I didn't see anything, just a dark shadow inside."
Zhang Hulan took the egg from Li's hand, looked at it against the oil lamp and said, "Sister-in-law, the egg you have is a bad one. It won't hatch any chicks. So we have to check them one by one and pick out the bad eggs."
Xiang Chunhua also took the egg and looked at it. It was indeed different from the one she had taken.
Xiang Chunhua said: "Sister, how come you know so much? How come you know everything?"
Zhang Hulan said without any guilt: "Because I am smarter than you."
Xiang Chunhua smiled and said, "Yes, I am indeed the smartest one in our family!"
Zhang Hulan and Li Xiang Chunhua checked the eggs one by one. Aunt Tao was also helping. She was also surprised that chicks could be hatched in this way.
There are more than a thousand breeding eggs, and more than a hundred of them cannot be hatched. It is not a lot. It seems that Gao Guangtian selected them carefully when purchasing them.
Xiang Chunhua asked: "Sister, what should we do with these eggs?"
"Eat it. Let's take some back and stir-fry some leeks."
Zhang Hulan then said to Aunt Tao, "Aunt Tao, go call Yang Xiaohui over and ask her to bring the remaining eggs over so that everyone can cook an egg tonight."
"Yes, ma'am."
At this time, Zhao Guoliang came over and asked Zhang Hulan, "Hulan, the carpenter's work is all done today. We can clean the house and move in tomorrow."
"When are you planning to move? You didn't hold a housewarming party yet, so you should hold one, right?"
Zhang Hulan shook her head decisively, "No, no, I'll just move here on a better day."
"Uncle Li Zheng, you have worked hard during this period. When I move, I will invite you to my house for a drink."
Zhao Guoliang said, "Why don't you like to have a banquet? This is a big wedding, you should have one."
"Well, what's the point?" Zhang Hulan said in a low voice, "Uncle Lizheng, I'd rather not be disliked. If I hold a banquet, someone will definitely think I'm showing off, so forget it."
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