Chapter 353 Bird's Nest
The three-layer aluminum bucket was filled with one and a half layers of wheat. In order to empty the aluminum bucket, while Mu Xi was rubbing the remaining corn, Zhao Yeqing took out the pestle to peel the wheat, intending to grind that half layer of wheat into flour.
It took Mu Xi another day to finish rubbing the corn. He put the corn kernels in sacks and took them to the hay house. The corn cobs were piled in the space inside the brick wall. Last year they could be piled outside, but this year there was too much rain, so they had to be moved indoors.
The rainy and humid weather is not without its benefits. At least this year the two of them took the preserved oyster mushroom strains to the mushroom house to grow them. In just one month, all the media in the mushroom house were covered with oyster mushrooms, leaving no room for them to grow further.
Zhao Yeqing ate countless meals of fried oyster mushrooms, oyster mushroom soup, stir-fried oyster mushrooms with pork belly... and so on, and he almost hurt himself.
I thought I could finally consume some of the oyster mushrooms, but after a few days, the mushroom house was full again, as if nothing had happened.
Zhao Yeqing never opened the door of the mushroom house again.
Let her grow however she wants, she can’t eat anymore.
Harvesting corn, threshing, pounding wheat, grinding flour...
The two of them worked for seven or eight days before they finally had some free time.
Being busy was not useless. In addition to harvesting a lot of food, it also successfully made Zhao Yeqing forget the existence of the bird's nest.
Zhao Yeqing got up in the morning and brushed his teeth by the well. He had a habit of walking around the house while brushing his teeth.
As she was wandering around, she suddenly remembered the bird's nest she had forgotten. She walked over to take a look, and found that there was still no bird inside.
Um?
Zhao Yeqing was about to turn around and leave when he suddenly noticed an inconspicuous brown feather in the straw bird's nest.
He held it in his hand and tried to identify it for a long time, but still couldn't recognize what kind of bird it was. He hurried to the well to spit out the foam in his mouth, brushed his teeth, and ran to the kitchen to find Mu Xi.
"Mu Xi! Can you tell what kind of bird this is?"
"Found it in a bird's nest?"
Mu Xi took the feather. The length of the feather was about the same as his little finger, and some small dots could be vaguely seen on it.
"Could it be a sparrow?"
If you were to ask what bird is the most common on meadows, it would definitely be the sparrow. Judging from the color of their feathers, they are very similar, except that they are slightly longer.
"No way?" Zhao Yeqing didn't want it to be a sparrow. Not only did it not help eat insects, but it also stole her food. "The light in the backyard is near the wisteria. It can attract that bird's nest to live here. It must be attracted by mosquitoes."
When the light was turned on, there were so many bugs above, it was like a large buffet scene.
Sparrows love to eat crops. Although they also eat insects, they are not very good at eating small mosquitoes and insects flying in the air. They mostly eat grasshoppers and ants on the ground.
In order to see clearly what kind of bird it was, Zhao Yeqing moved all the cameras placed next to the rice field to a place facing the bird's nest.
Sitting in the room staring at the computer screen, she finally saw the bird move into the nest after nightfall.
The two deliberately turned on the lights in the backyard and clearly saw a bird more than 20 centimeters long flying into the bird's nest.
At first glance, the two of them were sure that it was definitely not a sparrow. It was much larger than a sparrow, and its fur color was very complex, a combination of brown, white, black, and brown, and the pattern was very mottled.
The fur color is like that of a little owl, but it is definitely not an owl.
The two felt that it looked familiar, but couldn't remember where it was for a moment, until they heard that very distinctive cry.
"Da da da da da..."
There was silence in the room. Neither of them knew whether to cry or laugh. There was complexity in their eyes as they looked at each other.
This is definitely Nighthawk.
Zhao Yeqing didn't know how to describe his luck. He said okay, but the bird that came was a nighthawk. As long as it was in the mating period, its call at night was as loud as a machine gun and people couldn't sleep at all.
But it can definitely not be said that it has bad luck, because this bird is the best at eating mosquitoes. It also has another nickname called the mosquito queen bird, and it is very good at killing mosquitoes.
Zhao Yeqing could only pray silently that it would find a partner quickly so that it wouldn't have to keep barking.
The two listened to the machine-gun-like bird calls until two in the morning, when they finally couldn't bear it anymore and fell into a deep sleep.
However, the effect is quite obvious. Since Nighthawk moved in, the number of mosquitoes in the house has been visibly reduced. At least they are no longer everywhere on the windows when the light is turned on, as before.
Zhao Yeqing secretly went to take a look at the bird's nest during the day. The nighthawk slept in the nest during the day. She tiptoed to the corner nearby to take care of the citrus tree.
You definitely won’t be able to eat oranges this year. The citrus trees suffered severe damage from the snow last year, and the branches and leaves of the entire tree need to be well cared for for a year.
Its condition has improved a lot since it was transplanted. The newly grown crown is almost as tall as it is. If more branches and leaves grow, it should be able to bear fruit next year.
The weeds on the ground also need to be cleared. Now only the grass near the corners of the backyard is relatively dense, and the weeds in the middle have almost been pecked away by the chickens.
If you let the chickens out in the backyard during the day, they will not only eat the weeds in the backyard, but also eat the dead mosquitoes that fall to the ground.
Mu Xi came out of the shed in the yard, imitated the sound of "cuckoo cuckoo" a few times, and then attracted the chickens over and threw them a handful of insects.
Seeing Zhao Yeqing coming over to her, she said, "There have been a lot of bugs on the fruits and vegetables recently. It may be related to the increase in rainfall. Can you find something to kill the bugs?"
There are many small green caterpillars and caterpillars on the fruit trees. The former can be caught by hand, but the latter are really disgusting.
Due to climate change, increased rainfall and improved ecology, the most obvious increase in mosquitoes is in various moths. Before moths grow wings, they are various caterpillars.
Zhao Yeqing also has a very low tolerance for caterpillars. He gets goose bumps when he sees them.
But now there are no targeted pesticides to control these insects, so we can only pick the insects off the leaves manually every day.
Mu Xi was fine and was not afraid of them, but there were too many of them. Not only did it waste time, but if he was not careful and got pricked by some caterpillars, he would get a rash. He had to wear thick gloves to do this job.
Zhao Yeqing returned to his room and began to look through the agricultural books that he had read countless times.
Agricultural books published in each province basically provide planting suggestions and pest and disease control based on local climate characteristics.
But now the climate has changed quite a lot, and the useful information she can find has become less, and she has to figure out many things little by little on her own.
I looked through several books but couldn't find any method for prevention and treatment.
Just as Zhao Yeqing was about to give up and close the book, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a cost-free method to control all insect pests in the preface.
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