This is such great news!
She left Mufeng and ran to the chicken coop to take a look. Sure enough, in the chicken coop that was tightly surrounded by straw curtains, before she even arrived, she heard the chirping sounds of chickens.
Jiang Xue cursed herself for being stupid.
After catching the chickens, she barely cared for them. She even moved them to a vacant woodshed, not knowing whose idea it was. Later, she saw a good idea and had a few coops built. She then slapped some hay mats around the walls of the shed, and then she just let them go. She usually fed them as they came, and she didn't even notice they'd laid eggs.
Now the hen has hatched chicks.
She really didn't expect that the pheasant would give her such a big surprise.
"Xiaopang, starting tomorrow, you and your friends will go dig up earthworms in the fields and feed them to the chickens."
Earthworms are actually earthworms. Poultry such as chickens and ducks have no resistance to this kind of mollusk, so using them to feed chickens will naturally have a good effect.
"I'll go right away!"
Xiaopang shouted and ran into the cave. Then a group of little guys ran out of the cave. Xiaopang took them to the grass and used bamboo sticks to turn over the soil to look for earthworms.
Jiang Xue called Xiaohua over and told her, "From now on, you must walk around the chicken coop every day and pick out any eggs you find."
Xiaohua looked at her with wide eyes: "Sister Axue, why are you picking up eggs?"
"Don't worry about it, just listen to me."
The due dates of the pregnant women from the Bear Tribe are approaching. Their legs have been swollen for some time and they can't do anything. Muzi is almost two months old. Although there is no such thing as eating meat in the tribe, it is time to feed such a big baby some complementary food.
In this place where food and clothing are scarce, eggs are a rare supplementary food.
If the ewes in the sheep pen had no milk now, Jiang Xue would have asked Mu Xin to squeeze some goat milk, boil it and feed it to Xiao Muzi.
Good things happened one after another. Just as Jiang Xue was happy that the hens in the chicken coop had quietly hatched chicks, the silkworms she had collected finally hatched.
She quickly put on her backpack, found Xiaoxi and Heitu, and went to the bamboo forest to pick mulberry leaves.
Since the silkworms have just hatched, they cannot be fed with leaves that are too old, and they cannot chew them. The best thing is to pick those tender mulberry leaves that have just grown and have not changed color. After picking them, they need to be processed again.
When Heitu heard that he might have to climb a tree, he excitedly grabbed the backpack and ran towards the bamboo forest.
Xiaoxi was a step slower. Seeing this, he cursed angrily and ran into the cave quickly. He grabbed a backpack and chased after Heitu.
Jiang Xue shouted behind them: "Slow down!"
But these two guys didn't listen at all and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
By the time Jiang Xue arrived at the edge of the bamboo forest, their two backpacks were already filled to the brim with mulberry leaves.
Jiang Xue's mouth twitched. All the mulberry leaves had already been picked, and it seemed a bit inappropriate to let them throw them away. So she said, "Alright, take them all back. When you get back, don't mess around."
After returning to the tribe, Jiang Xue took the basket containing the silkworm eggs outside the cave and had them go back in to fetch a winnowing basket. She then had Xiangcao and Muzhu bring out a clean piece of animal hide. She meticulously wiped away the water droplets, mud, sand, and other dirt from the mulberry leaves, shredded them, and spread them evenly in the winnowing basket. She then carefully swept the hatched silkworms onto the shredded leaves in the winnowing basket, bit by bit, using tender mulberry leaves.
As she worked, she instructed Muzhu and Xiangcao, "These silkworms will be yours to take care of from now on. They will shed their skin every few days, and their appetite will increase after shed. After they shed their skin twice, you can feed them whole mulberry leaves. When they grow a little bigger, you must remember to separate them and bring a few more winnowing baskets. You must also clean up their feces in time. If you don't deal with it in time, they may be crushed to death by the mulberry leaves and their own feces. After they shed their skin three or four times, their appetite will increase greatly. If you two are too busy at this time, remember to call for help. But remember, the mulberry leaves for the silkworms cannot be watery or contain mud and sand. These dirt must be wiped clean before feeding them."
Vanilla glanced at her and said, "Snow Witch, are we going to feed these silkworms to the chickens when they grow up?"
Jiang Xue was so shocked by her words that she was almost horrified. "What nonsense are you talking about? When did I ever say I was going to use them to feed the chickens? I'm going to use them to make other things. You guys better keep an eye on them and don't let Xiaopang and the others use them to feed the chickens. If I find out, I'll be the first one to go after you."
Vanilla was surprised: "But what use are these black little bugs?"
"I want to use the silk they spin to make clothes and quilts, so you must watch carefully."
To make clothes, one must first spin silk from silkworm cocoons, then weave it into cloth bit by bit. This process requires a spinning wheel, a spinning cone, and other miscellaneous tools, which is a bit far-fetched for the tribe now. But she has a spinning wheel, which is still quietly lying in the system's package.
Unfortunately, she had no knowledge of the subject and had no experience in making it. The only thing she could think of using silk to make was a silk quilt. Even then, she could only rely on the instructions in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" and slowly figure it out on her own.
This is getting off topic. The silkworms have just hatched, and it is still 50-50 as to whether they can be made into quilts or cloth.
After instructing Xiangcao, she carefully swept all the hatched silkworms into a dustpan, observed them for a while, and then brought them into the cave.
As soon as she entered the cave, her brows furrowed.
It is said that silkworms are very sensitive to smells and cannot stand any smell, whether it is smelly or fragrant. Now that the weather is gradually getting warmer, even the ice on the river has melted, and it is impossible for people to run and jump on it. It seems that we have to build a special breeding room for the silkworms.
It’s time to be busy again!
She went straight to Chimu and asked him to bring people to cut more trees and bamboo and build a shed as tall as the pavilion, but it had to have walls on all four sides. She also asked Asongbo to break more bamboo strips, of any width, but of uniform thickness. She didn't explain the rest.
In Jiang Xue's opinion, since she plans to raise silkworms, she must provide them with the most comfortable home.
Akagi didn't say anything and immediately arranged for soldiers to fly in two directions to cut down trees and bamboos.
As soon as the trees were cut down, Jiang Xue asked them to start building the house.
Silkworms cannot smell anything, so the place should be far away from caves, toilets, chicken pens, and goat pens. Also, be careful not to let them be harmed by mosquitoes, mice, and other small animals, especially ants.
Ants particularly like to eat these mollusks. It is impossible for there to be no ants in the tribe. Even if the floor is compacted when building the silkworm room, special attention must be paid.
Mu Feng looked at Jiang Xue who was busy running around and sighed in his heart.
She is much busier than me! ?
Well, I'll come see her after she finishes this busy period.
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