Chapter 343: In the Reeds
As long as the temperature doesn't rise and it doesn't rain, it will be cool. Zhao Yeqing has to put on a coat when he gets up in the morning and can only take it off at noon.
Although the current rainfall will make the floor wet, the sun will still shine during the day, so it will not affect the health of crops too much.
At the moment, the only disadvantage is that it is not suitable for drying things. Even if it didn't rain today, it rained last night. The water vapor on the floor evaporated when the sun shone, and the things drying in the yard could never dry.
Be it clothes or food.
Zhao Yeqing took out all the dry goods stored at home and dried them in the sun. The uneaten goods had been kept in the house for too long in the winter. Even if they didn't get moldy, they would always have a smell. When the sun came out, they had to be taken out and dried to get rid of the smell.
There are some dried shrimps in the dustpan in the yard, which were caught recently.
The two men didn't dare to use the bamboo raft they had used before to go into the water, so they could only use shrimp cages to catch shrimps slowly. The harvest was not much each time, and the two men changed several spots to set up the cages but the harvest was not great.
He was too lazy to cut bamboo to make a new raft, which was too troublesome, so Mu Xi made a few more shrimp cages and placed them by the lake, trying to win by numbers.
In the past, Mu Xi would go to the lake alone to retrieve the shrimp cages, or they would go together if both of them were free.
But today was the time for the first topdressing of the fields, a job usually done by Mu Xi, so the task of collecting the shrimp cages was given to Zhao Yeqing.
In order to save time, Zhao Yeqing now rides Xiaohong whenever he goes on longer trips. He leads Xiaohong out of the stable, puts on the saddle, and rides directly to the lake.
There are not as many shrimps in spring as in autumn. In addition, after this winter, I don’t know if they were over-consumed by the fish in the lake, resulting in not much harvest from the shrimp cages that have been left for such a long time.
There was a hole in one of the shrimp cages that was broken. Zhao Yeqing looked at the two finger-sized holes, raised his head and looked around, intending to fold some reeds to fill the hole.
After all, the shrimp cage has to be kept there. A few more harvests should be enough to eat during this period of time. In addition to shrimp skin, shrimp powder has to be made to serve as chicken essence and MSG. Without it, the dishes will still lack some flavor.
Zhao Yeqing walked to the reeds with the shrimp cage and looked at the newly sprouted reeds which had now grown taller than her and were very dense.
She was worried that there was something hiding inside, so she moved a little further away and took out the spear from her back to poke it to test it.
You know what, this poke actually made her get something out of it.
As soon as the tip of the spear entered the grass, there was a splash and something fell into the water.
Zhao Yeqing quickly turned her head to the side and saw the ripples in the water. The ripples were small, thin and long, which made her heart rise instantly.
It really is a snake.
If it had been before, Zhao Yeqing would have evacuated this place as quickly as possible. Even if the snake had been driven away, she didn't dare to stay here any longer.
But after the experience of killing the giant python in Yunwu Mountain last time, Zhao Yeqing found that although he was still afraid, he was not as terrified as before.
Now that the snake had been driven away, she broke off some suitable reeds to fill the shrimp cage.
When choosing reeds for weaving, do not use reeds that are too tender, as they will break if bent. Slightly older reeds are better.
Most of the reeds in this season are new growth, and the old ones are not easy to find. Zhao Yeqing first used a spear to pick apart the reeds, and only dared to start after making sure that there was nothing inside.
She hadn't noticed that the middle of the reeds had been crushed. As soon as she pulled the grass aside, she saw a few gray-white eggs in the collapsed area.
Zhao Yeqing was familiar with this thing. It was wild duck eggs. A few years ago, she also took a few from this place back to make salted duck eggs.
A closer look revealed a wet mark next to the duck egg, and the egg also showed signs of having been moved. Presumably, the snake had just come out of the water, found the duck egg, and was about to eat it when it snatched it away.
We didn't find any wild ducks by the lake this year, but we still got this harvest. I guess the wild ducks were afraid of being preyed on, so they hid when they heard any movement. Or they might have died.
There were ten duck eggs in total, placed in the middle of the grass. Zhao Yeqing was afraid that the snake would come back and eat the eggs as soon as she turned around and left.
She stood up and looked around but couldn't find any trace of the wild duck. After thinking about it, she simply squatted down and packed up all the ten wild duck eggs and took them away.
The mother duck that laid this nest of duck eggs usually guards the eggs, but now she is not incubating them. What if the wild duck has unfortunately died, and this nest of eggs will become a great meal for the snake.
Wild ducks have two egg-laying periods. When the climate was normal in the past, they were from March to May in spring and around October in autumn. If the wild duck was still alive, let it lay another nest in the autumn, and it would take this nest away first.
He whistled to ask Xiaohong to come over.
There was a cloth bag hanging on Xiaohong's saddle. This bag was used to store grass seeds when planting grass in the grass circle. Zhao Yeqing took off the cloth bag and padded it with fine fluff.
This wild duck's nest is made of this fine fluff. Zhao Yeqing simply dismantled the nest, put it in a cloth bag, and then put the duck eggs in it.
After hanging the duck eggs back on the horse, he did not forget to pick out a suitable reed, weave the shrimp cage and put it back into the water.
After getting this bag of unexpected gains, Zhao Yeqing started to deal with them as soon as he got home.
Mu Xi was a little surprised when she saw her go out empty-handed but come back with a big bag of duck eggs: "There are wild ducks by the lake?"
Zhao Yeqing shook his head. "I was looking at the duck eggs instead of the ducks, and they were almost eaten by a snake."
"So what are you going to use it for? Salted duck eggs or preserved eggs?"
"Neither. I plan to hatch them."
If she was just eating them, she would definitely leave one or two in the duck coop and let them survive on their own, but she was doing it for hatching, so she packed them all up and took them away.
The survival rate will be higher if it stays with her than in that nest.
Zhao Yeqing has two plans for the next step of incubation. One is to incubate with lights, keeping the temperature in the incubator at around 37 degrees and the humidity above 60% to between 70%.
Another option is to let the hens at home hatch them.
Chicken eggs...duck eggs cannot be put in the same basket, so Zhao Yeqing plans to use both methods.
I took out a planting lamp, which is easy to control the temperature. Then I put Mu Xi's watch in it to observe the temperature, and then put some water in the box.
When the temperature was controlled to fluctuate between 37.2 degrees and 37.3 degrees, I put four wild duck eggs in, and the remaining six were put into the chicken coop.
Mu Xi knew Zhao Yeqing's personality. She was the kind of person who would not hand over the work to others if she could do it herself. Now, looking at the ratio of the number of duck eggs,
"You have so little confidence in yourself?"
"The main reason is that this is my first time doing this, so I have theoretical knowledge but no practical experience, so I have to give it a try first."
After all, it takes too long to incubate duck eggs. The eggshell is thick. The book says that the incubation period of wild ducks is more than 28 days. I don’t know how long the wild duck eggs have been born and when they can hatch.
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