Chapter 377 The Necessity of Outbreeding
As if to give a break to the farmers who had worked hard all spring, a light rain fell quietly and the entire mountain village was shrouded in misty drizzle.
The fields are full of green seedlings and plump corn seedlings. The main crops planted here in spring are rice and corn, in addition to sweet potatoes and potatoes, and later on crops such as soybeans and peanuts.
Looking down from the sky, the river valley where Red Maple Mountain is located is full of beautiful terraces, and the crops planted in them are neatly arranged and lush.
All of this was dug out by farmers with their hoes. It is these hard-working farmers who have provided the most basic and important food security for the country's development in this era.
On the Red Maple Mountain side, in the breeding base surrounded by beautiful roses, the growing ryegrass and alfalfa sway in the wind. After more than a month of growth, they have become very lush.
Further up, the round-leafed Astragalus seedlings are also growing well, emerging in an even pattern and growing luxuriantly.
Several dogs were tied at different locations, guarding everything on Red Maple Mountain.
In the hatchery above the shrimp pond, Lin Heng and his father are checking the hatching of the green shrimps. The hatching of the green shrimps has been going on. Now the shrimp fry are beginning to be born one after another, and the transparent little shrimps are swimming rapidly in the water.
Father Lin looked at the shrimp seedlings and commented: "This looks no different from last year. I think you wasted nearly a hundred yuan."
The female shrimps here come from their own shrimp pond and are the female shrimps raised last year, while the male shrimps are purchased by Lin Heng from Huangtan Town and come from the Huangtan River in the town.
Lin Heng did this originally to prevent inbreeding and to select broodstock from different regions so that the offspring would be stronger in disease resistance and other aspects.
While observing the shrimp fry, Lin Heng responded, "You can't tell by just looking at the appearance. What has changed is the genes. It's the same reason why children of inbreeding in ancient times were prone to deformities."
There is a lot of knowledge involved in breeding and reproduction, as details determine success or failure, and you cannot save money on this.
"Do we have to do the same with cattle and sheep?" Father Lin asked again.
Lin Heng nodded: "Yes, the same goes for other livestock. After this batch of black goats are born, I will buy a few more breeding males next year for breeding."
Only by continuously injecting new foreign genes can the health of sheep and cattle herds be guaranteed.
Father Lin asked in confusion: "Then I see that there are several families in the village who raise dozens of sheep. It seems that there is no problem if they don't do this."
Lin Heng patted his father on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Dad, you have to understand that just because it looks fine doesn't mean there is no problem. Once a problem occurs in the breeding industry, the loss will be very large. It will be useless to regret it then. Just do as I say, I guarantee you won't go wrong."
He understood that his father still had a farmer's mindset and always unconsciously wanted to save money.
But these are all summarized from experience. Just like the breeding of cattle and sheep, inbreeding often seems to be no problem, but once encountering a disease, it will be found that the resistance of both parties is completely different.
Many experiments have also verified that the offspring of closely related genes are far inferior to the offspring of distantly related genes.
"I'll do whatever you say. I don't understand it anyway." Although Father Lin still didn't quite understand, he was willing to do what Lin Heng said.
"So I'm very worried about the reproduction of musk deer. In the future, it will all be inbreeding." Lin Heng shook his head helplessly.
But he had no choice. The number of musk deer in the mountains was getting smaller and smaller. He hadn't even encountered one last year, let alone catch one alive.
We can only wait and see if we can introduce some musk deer from other places. He is not the only one who is breeding musk deer.
After checking the shrimp fry, Father Lin came to the plum fish fry pond, looked at the thermometer and said, "I'm afraid these plum fish fry need to be released back to the mountain. The water temperature here is 18 degrees."
The plum fish fry here are divided into four areas for breeding according to their sizes. The largest is five centimeters long, while the smallest is only two centimeters. The total number is about fifteen thousand.
Carnivorous fish have the habit of cannibalism, so they should be raised separately according to size.
Lin Heng fed these fish fry very well, with high-protein feed, but their growth rate was not fast and could not be compared with that of sea bass and mandarin fish.
It has been almost two months since they were hatched. They are fed every day in the breeding environment, and the largest one is only as long as a finger. At this rate, it would be good if they could grow to two kilograms in a year in the breeding environment.
Lin Heng nodded and said, "Let's set up a few cages at the reservoir on the top of the mountain to raise them these days. We definitely can't raise them here."
When the weather gets hot, the temperature in the hatchery pool rises very quickly and is no longer suitable for raising this kind of cold-water fish.
"The workload is very heavy recently. We also have to disinfect the shrimp pond." Father Lin said with a smile.
"We can just find helpers when the time comes. There's no need for us to work alone." Lin Heng nodded. He was also often immersed in work.
After checking the situation of the fish and shrimp, the two of them started to make the net cages. They mainly used very fine gauze and bamboo strips, and used foam strips on the top as buoyancy devices, which can generally be used for one year.
It was already twelve o'clock in the afternoon when everything was done. Lin Heng walked out of the incubation room, glanced at the drizzle outside, and took a deep breath.
"I'm going back, Mom and Dad. I won't come over this afternoon." Lin Heng said to his parents.
"Go ahead." Father Lin handed him the umbrella.
Walking down, you can hear the loud sound of flowing water in the mountain stream next to you. This is not caused by rising water, but they are releasing water from the shrimp pond.
The water can only be added after it is cleaned and disinfected. The silver carp and bighead carp mixed in the shrimp pond have already been caught and placed in another pond.
There was a large net at the water mouth to catch some brook groupers and shrimps that were washed out. Lin Heng walked over to take a look and found that there were already four or five kilograms of fish and shrimps, most of which were shrimps, with only a few brook groupers.
He shouted loudly for his father to bring two bags and divide the shrimps into two halves, one for his parents and one for him to take back.
When he got home, his daughter and Xiongba opened the door to greet him. Xiaoxia looked at Lin Heng holding so many prawns and said happily, "Dad, did you catch these? You are so awesome."
"I caught it, come on, daddy, lift it up high!"
Lin Heng held her up high and walked back along the corridor.
"Woo! Woo!"
Being lifted up by Lin Heng, Xiaoxia cheered and kept grinning, as if everything could make her happy.
Lin Heng walked into the house and looked at Xiulan who was still cooking. He smiled and shouted, "Wife, do you want to fry another pair of green shrimps? They are green shrimps with eggs, which are the best time to eat them."
"Sure, give it to me and I'll take care of it." Xiulan nodded.
"Let me do it, you cook first."
Lin Heng said and sat down to process the prawns. He didn't like to slowly remove the shrimp thread when eating, so he chose to process it now.
The main thing is to take out the shrimp thread. The fresh shrimp can be taken out by bending and squeezing it from the back of the neck and then gently pulling it. The shrimps he raises are all very large and are not difficult to handle.
Xiulan fried the pumpkin tips in the pot and came over to help Lin Heng. After she was done, she fried two pounds of prawns at once.
Prawns are fragrant to begin with, and the aroma of the shrimp roe becomes even more intense when they are fried with eggs. A plate of prawns with garlic, a plate of fried meat with pumpkin tips, and a bowl of egg yolk soup is lunch.
There is no need to say much about the taste of shrimp. It tastes delicious no matter how you stir-fry it. With a little skill, you can make a delicious meal.
Xiaoxia now eats the food without peeling the shells, just like her parents. Now that her teeth have grown in, her teeth are in good shape.
After eating the prawns, they gave the oil containing a lot of shrimp roe to Xiaoxia to mix with rice. Lin Heng and the others didn't need to feed her the whole bowl of rice, and it was finished in a short while.
While they were eating, their two sons in the stroller next to them were also grunting and wiggling their arms and legs, as if they wanted to eat.
"They are four months old now and can eat complementary food. Do you want to make some for them to try?" Lin Heng asked Xiulan.
During these four months, the two little ones were relatively healthy. They only got sick twice, both were minor colds. Apart from getting vaccinations, they never went to the hospital.
Xiulan nodded and agreed: "Then I'll cook some rice flour paste for you to feed it later."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded.
After finishing her meal, Xiulan stood up and said, "You can finish the remaining yellow flower soup."
"No problem." Lin Heng picked up the basin with a smile and drank all the remaining liquid.
After drinking, he cleared the dishes and took them to the kitchen, while Xiulan used an electric stove to prepare complementary foods for her two sons.
The electric stove of this era was a ceramic base with coils of spring-like heating resistors installed on it. It worked on the same principle as the later electric ovens for heating.
This thing is not expensive, but it consumes a lot of electricity. The current electricity cost is 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, and his family doesn't use it much.
Xiulan boils the water, adds a mixture of rice flour and lotus root powder and cooks it into a paste. After it is cooked, do not add anything else and just set it aside to cool.
Adding things like sugar in the early stages will affect the formation of children's taste.
Lin Heng carried his two sons out and placed them on the sofa, watching them twist and turn over, crawling for a while before only moving a few centimeters.
"Come on, feed it and give it a try!"
Xiulan felt that the temperature of the supplementary food was about right, so she brought it over and said.
"Two little cuties are having dinner!"
Lin Heng picked up both of his sons, one in each arm.
"I watch my brother eat too!"
Xiaoxia threw away her shoes, climbed onto the sofa, and leaned on Lin Heng's shoulder to watch.
Xiulan blew on the food, tasted it herself, and then tried to feed it to Lin Luming first.
"Ahhh!!" Lin Luming turned his head and babbled, not wanting to eat.
"Then let's try Du Heng." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Xiulan nodded and tried to feed her younger son again. Lin Duheng licked it, blinked his eyes, ate it, and laughed foolishly.
"He's eaten, he's eaten, little brother!" Xiaoxia was the first to cheer, even happier than Lin Heng and Xiulan.
The two younger brothers seemed to have gotten used to the actions of their older sister. In contrast, they just waved and did not react at all.
"I've eaten it, then have some more!"
Xiulan blew on it and fed some to Du Heng.
The little guy seemed to like the taste very much and ate several mouthfuls in a row.
“Wow wow wow!!”
It seemed that Lu Ming was envious of his younger brother eating and burst into tears.
"Come on, come on, eat some."
Xiulan fed Luming some more, and this time he ate it without vomiting.
The two of them ate a little bit of the complementary food and then didn't want any more. Xiulan didn't feed them more and ate the rest herself.
Complementary foods should be introduced gradually. If the child doesn't want it, then don't eat it.
Watching their two children grow up little by little, they feel a sense of accomplishment.
After dinner, I let them play on the sofa for a while and then put them back in the stroller.
"Why not put a crib in the main room? There's plenty of space for them to play by themselves." Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and suggested.
"We can get one." Xiulan nodded in agreement.
"Then I'll ask Carpenter Liang to make one for me in a couple of days." Lin Heng nodded. His father was very busy recently and had no time to do it.
After resting for a while, Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said, "Didn't you say you wanted to harvest honey recently? Today is a good day."
"It's quite appropriate indeed."
Lin Heng nodded, went to get the road, set up the ladder and went up to cut the honey.
Although he was very experienced, he still wore a bee-proof gauze hat.
When the sealed boxes were opened, they were filled with bees. The two boxes of bees in the backyard are now large and strong colonies, and the honey production is also considerable.
The only pity is that this year a swarm of bees emerged, but he didn’t receive it and doesn’t know where it went.
Holding a dagger, he slowly cuts off the honey. When you are no longer afraid, the bees will not attack you.
"This spring honey harvest is also a bumper crop. The gross weight is probably more than ten kilograms, right?"
Xiulan looked at the pot of honey and said happily that she really liked eating honey. Now that she had bees at home, she could eat it more generously.
"Almost. The honey is very good this spring." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.
After returning to the house, the two squeezed out the honey and filtered it with gauze. They weighed it and found that there were seven kilograms of pure honey, which was a very good yield.
After filtering the honey, the remaining residue is not wasted. Put it in a pot and boil it, filter it twice with gauze, and then pour in cold water. The natural beeswax will condense on the water surface.
Repeat this process twice to get natural beeswax with high purity that is edible.
"We still had eight kilograms before, so we now have fifteen kilograms of honey in total."
Xiulan said happily that this was the amount after she ate nearly five or six kilograms last year.
"We can still harvest two or three kilograms from Hongfeng Mountain, which is enough to eat." Lin Heng said with a smile.
To be precise, there are two barrels at Hongfeng Mountain. When the bees were swarming, a beehive was placed there in advance and the bees moved in directly.
But I guess there’s not much honey in this newly divided box.
"Then let's make some honey milk tea tomorrow morning." Xiulan said with a wink.
"We can make it now. I'll light some charcoal and make some honey-grilled grouper for us to eat tonight."
Lin Heng smiled and said that he had shot two turtledoves a few days ago and they were still in the refrigerator and he hadn't eaten them yet, so it was a good opportunity to roast them this time.
"That's fine." Xiulan agreed with a smile.
They started a little charcoal fire, boiled a pot of honey strawberry milk tea, and then roasted two turtledoves. The aroma of the roasted turtledoves was even more fragrant than that of the honey pigeons.
The evening meal consisted of two honey doves, milk tea, five baked potatoes, and a plate of freshly picked strawberries.
Such a dinner will give those who eat it sweet dreams.
The next day it was still raining, moderate rain but there was no sign of stopping, and it continued to rain for three days.
The rain continued until June 5th. It finally stopped that morning. After breakfast, Xiulan was about to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms, but Lin's mother brought some not-so-good news.
(End of this chapter)
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