Chapter 254 Primitive Beast World Cubs 28
After a hard day's work, the land was indeed cultivated, but the oxen had plowed it into a mess.
But the soil had finally softened, and the solid earth was pulled out, forming small mounds.
However, it's best not to sow immediately. The soil that has been turned over contains a lot of grass roots and plant remains and stems. If these things are left, there is a high chance they will continue to burrow into the soil and grow.
Never underestimate a plant's ability to grow.
“Sweetie, we need to pick out these grass roots and leaves. We can’t let them continue to grow, but we can turn them into fertilizer.”
Let them rot quickly, so the soil will become more fertile and more food can be grown.
How can I make them rot faster?
Cangye asked curiously.
“We can pile them together, let them heat up, and let them ferment.”
As Shen Ci spoke, he picked up the larger grass roots and plant remains from the ground, piled them in a corner of the field, and then burned them.
"That's not enough, we need to add something more."
She asked Cangye for help to collect some fresh animal droppings, mainly from Big Horn and other nearby animals, and also shoveled some cooled wood ash from the fire, which she then spread evenly on the haystack.
This cow is still a cow, and its dung pile was quite large, sitting in the corner of the cowshed for a long time without being cleaned up. It just came in handy.
"Look, mix them together like this, add some water to keep them moist, and after a while, they will slowly rot on their own."
The process of turning the soil into a dark, highly nutritious fertile soil is called composting.
"Once the fertilizer is properly composted, we'll spread it on the field, and the crops will grow stronger!"
As she spoke, she poured water onto the surface with a wooden bucket.
Wasteland is actually very barren, as the nutrients are absorbed by native plants. Clearing wasteland is hard work, and it has been so since ancient times.
The mother and son tidied up the haystack together, watered it thoroughly, and then covered it with a thin layer of soil to keep it warm.
Shen Ci patted the mud off his hands.
"Alright, let them change on their own for now. We'll check back in a few days."
After putting in effort and hard work, it's necessary to wait for time to let things take their course.
While waiting for the land to recover and for compost to be made, Shen Ci didn't sit idle. She was busy, so she handed over all the meat-related matters at home to the little wolf cub.
The little wolf cub's work is quite impressive, but it still needs to be checked again.
The meat strips were evenly coated with salt and hung in a ventilated place; they should be almost half-dried by now.
Because there wasn't much salt, he mainly used a combination of air drying and smoking.
This prevents the meat from rotting and also saves on salt.
During this time, Cang Ye was busy farming and taming the bighorn bulls, so he went out hunting by himself.
His doorstep is a natural hunting ground, which is relatively safe. He is also very diligent, and now the meat in his house is hanging in a row.
"Ding-dong! Quest triggered: The Era of Animal Husbandry."
They successfully raised ten poultry in captivity and taught the cubs basic feeding skills.
Task Rewards: One bag of high-quality poultry feed (50 kg), one poultry disease prevention manual, and +15% rescue points.
The system notification alerted Shen Ci! The feed and disease prevention manual were exactly what she needed for raising chickens! She immediately decided to raise chickens! Chickens have a relatively short growth cycle, can lay eggs, and reproduce quickly.
Chickens are the most basic poultry!
Chickens lay eggs, eggs hatch into chickens, and chickens lay eggs again. Eggs are a common source of nutrition, and eggshells can also be used as compost.
"Sweetie, we're going to raise chickens next!"
Chickens lay eggs, eggs are edible, and chicken meat is delicious. If we raise enough chickens, we'll have an endless supply of eggs and meat!
Scrambled eggs are delicious, fried eggs are delicious, boiled eggs are delicious—you'll see how delicious they are when you get them!
"Raising chickens? Like raising bighorn chickens?" Cangye asked excitedly.
"Yes, but chickens can't live with cows, lest they get trampled to death by the cows."
We need to build a chicken coop first to keep the chickens in place, otherwise they might run away.
They act decisively and never procrastinate.
Shen Ci planned to build a chicken coop on an open space on the other side of the cave, close to the water source but at a certain distance from the houses, since the smell of chicken droppings was still quite pungent.
The chicken coop was located around a large tree, essentially in the backyard of the house.
To build a chicken coop, you should first build a wall. Chickens aren't cows, they don't have that much strength, so you don't need a very sturdy structure; a regular fence will suffice.
However, the pheasants here fly high, jump far, and run fast, unlike ordinary chickens, so ordinary low fences won't work.
Shen Ci took the wolf cubs up the mountain to cut some bamboo, split the bamboo into evenly sized strips with a knife, and then used a cross-weaving method.
Weave the bamboo strips together, making sure the gaps in the middle are too big for the chickens to squeeze through. The fence isn't difficult; just make a circle around it.
However, to prevent the pheasants from jumping out, the fence is about two meters high, making it difficult for the pheasants to fly out. Bamboo strips are deeply inserted into the soil, fixing the fence around about twenty square meters.
The chicken coop wasn't a difficult building, so she planned to make it as sturdy as possible from the start, using long, thin bamboo poles for the part that would be inserted into the ground.
Use crisscrossing bamboo strips, and split bamboo strips for horizontal sections, to ensure the chickens can't get out or get hurt.
After the chicken coop area was marked out and the outer walls were built, a shed to shelter them from the wind and rain was also needed.
Otherwise, where would the chickens hide on rainy days?
Chickens are small poultry, so there's no need for too many different kinds of poultry.
They built a small hut around the big tree in the center of the chicken coop using the mud bricks left over from building the house. They then built a shed on top using thin bamboo poles, covered it with thatch and leaves, and tied it with vines.
As long as rainwater can't get in when it rains, it's fine. Although the system only requires raising ten chickens this time, the number will definitely increase later, so this chicken coop needs to be built a little bigger.
There are about a dozen or twenty chickens living in this coop, so it shouldn't be too crowded. Once they're more accustomed to living there, we can let them out a little more.
In any case, this chicken coop is more comfortable and spacious than the cages in the chicken farm.
Chicken coops are meant to shelter chickens from the wind and rain, but chickens can get cold in winter too.
So Shen Ci put thick layers of dry grass in the chicken coop he built with mud bricks, so the chickens could crawl inside to sleep at night, where it was both warm and safe.
After the chicken coop was built, it was a small mud-brick house with a thatched roof and an opening on the outside, surrounded by a large tree. The whole structure was square.
The chicken coop was lined with a thick layer of dry grass, so the chickens were safe inside. This is humane chicken farming.
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