Chapter 112 The Happy Life of Chickens and Ducks 2
Finally, it was decided to fence off the area for the chickens and ducks. Everyone worked together and it was done very quickly.
Wang Cuihua, Zhang Yuling and Yike looked at the fenced-off area and seemed to see chicks and ducklings running and playing happily there. The chicks were digging for bugs on the ground with their claws, and the ducklings were chasing fish in the creek. They were living a happy and carefree life.
"Tomorrow we will pick out the roosters from the chicks and release them separately. The same goes for the ducks. Male and females will grow faster if they are raised separately." Yi Ke said after thinking for a while.
"How can we tell the gender of a baby so young?" godmother Wang Cuihua asked puzzledly.
"I'll teach you tomorrow." Yike said.
"That's great. If you can tell the difference between male and female hens, and raise them separately from a young age, the hens won't have their food snatched away by the roosters, so they'll definitely grow fast. Yi Ke is really smart." Wang Cuihua didn't doubt at all whether Yi Ke could really tell the difference between male and female hens. She believed whatever Yi Ke said was true. She was definitely a fangirl of hers, even though she was a little old.
"Ziyi, let's separate this place. Raise roosters on one side and hens on the other side. Raise ducks near the creek. This way they won't steal food from the hens, and the hens will grow faster." Yike ran to Ziyi to discuss the matter, and told Ziyi that he could tell the difference between male and female chickens.
"Okay, then let's weave some more bamboo strips. These should be wider so that they are taller. When the rooster grows up, he won't be able to fly over to the hens." Ziyi said as he broke some more bamboo strips.
"Yike, you are really good. It would be great if we could tell male and female apart. In the past, everyone had to wait until the rooster grew a comb before they could tell them apart. The roosters and hens were raised together when they were young, and the hens could never get the food from the roosters, so the hens always grew slowly and the roosters grew fast. Besides, roosters can't lay eggs, and they can't be sold immediately when they grow up, which is a waste of food. Now, if we raise them separately, we don't have to worry about roosters snatching food. Can you tell the difference between ducks?" Du Qingcang, who was standing next to him, immediately became excited when he heard Yike's words.
"It should be possible, right?" Yi Ke had never tried to tell the difference between male and female ducks, but he seemed to have heard of it when he was telling the difference between male and female chicks in his previous life.
"Then how do you tell them apart? Can you tell me?" Du Qingcang asked curiously.
"There are many methods, but the most accurate one is to look at the butt. That is, catch the chick and use the thumbs of both hands to squeeze the anus into a small triangle, then turn the anus inside out. If there is a white spherical protrusion on the anus, then it is a rooster, otherwise it is a hen. It seems to be the same principle for ducks. Catch the duckling, press down on the duck's back with one hand, and then touch under the duckling's anus. If you feel a protrusion, like a granule, then it is a drake." Yike memorized the method from Baidu in his previous life like reciting a book.
Du Qingcang seemed to understand: "You mean to touch the buttocks of chickens and ducks. If there are raised bumps, it is a male. Is that right?"
"Godfather is so smart, he understood it immediately." Yike flattered.
Ziyi looked at Yike with a smile, and Yike made a face at him.
Everyone happily used bamboo strips to divide the place into three areas, and laid bamboo strips on the top of some of the taller bushes, covered them with hay, and then tied them up with bamboo strips. Some bushes were cut off in the middle under the bushes and the middle was hollowed out. This was a temporary place for chickens and ducks to shelter from the rain. After all, when it rains, the chickens and ducks will definitely not run back to the chicken coop. The chicken coop is on the other side of the bamboo forest, a little far away.
The chicken and duck enclosure was fenced off. Yike and her two mothers went to the Baicao Garden to pick vegetables to cook dinner. Ziyi and Du Qingcang, father and son, first made some traps near the newly fenced chicken and duck enclosure to see if they could catch rabbits or pheasants. Then they went to the previous traps to see if there were any prey.
The vegetables in Baicao Garden are no longer just some wild vegetables. Yike has planted all the seeds he bought, and now Baicao Garden is thriving: fresh, juicy, bright purple eggplants; juicy green peppers; plump round tomatoes; big lantern-like pumpkins; emerald green leeks; plump and round radishes... The vegetables in this garden are grown very well by the two mothers. Yike only comes to help occasionally. Who told Yike to be so busy here and there? How could he have so much energy to tidy up the vegetable garden every day?
In the evening, apart from a plate of braised rabbit meat, the rest of the table was filled with colorful green vegetables. Fried eggs with leeks, fried eggplant with peppers, pumpkin pancakes, stir-fried Chinese cabbage, stir-fried guanyin cabbage, and tomato and egg soup.
"I used to eat all kinds of wild vegetables for a long time, without any oil or water, and I lost my appetite when I saw green vegetables. I didn't expect that green vegetables could be so delicious. Uncle Hao and aunt, you cooked it so deliciously." Du Jiankang praised while eating.
"How can I make this? It's all teachable." Zhang Yuling also ate with big mouthfuls. Mm, it was really delicious.
"That's also because of mom's ability. I just stood by the stove and talked. It's mom's ability to understand and do things. In short, mom is capable." Yike picked up a piece of eggplant fried with peppers and gave it to his mother Zhang Yuling, "Mom, eat more. You work the hardest."
"You're trying to make your mother happy. Everyone has worked hard, including you. Come, eat more meat so you can grow taller." Zhang Yuling picked out a piece of rabbit meat and gave it to Yi Ke.
Speaking of height, I am really worried. In the past, Yang Huaihua withheld my food so much that I was malnourished for a long time. Before I escaped last year, I was shorter than a ten-year-old child. Although I have better food after escaping, it is impossible for me to grow taller all of a sudden. I really don't want to be a short person.
Although Yi Ke was not a great beauty in her previous life, she had a pretty face and a good figure. Even without high heels, she was at least 1.65 meters tall. Besides, she is a face lover. If she were too ugly, she would probably vomit to death and be unhappy for the rest of her life. It would be better for her not to live her life again.
"You're not short, you're petite and cute. Come, eat the rabbit leg." Ziyi knew Yike's heart knot and was afraid that she would feel uncomfortable, so he quickly picked a piece of rabbit leg for Yike and comforted her.
"Yes, yes, our Yike is only fourteen years old. It is the time for him to grow taller. He should eat more meat and more nutritious food. I guarantee that he will be taller than me next year and the year after next." Wang Cuihua also picked up rabbit meat and put it into Yike's bowl.
Wang Cuihua is at most 1.567 meters tall, which is not considered tall at all. If that were the case, she would really be petite and cute as Ziyi said, which would make Yike even more worried.
When Wang Cuihua saw Yi Ke glance at her, she knew she had said the wrong thing. She was not tall to begin with, so wouldn’t this make Yi Ke even more uncomfortable? I am so stupid when it comes to talking. Wang Cuihua quickly nudged her son Du Jiankang with her elbow, signaling him to speak.
"Sister Yike." Du Jiankang said after swallowing the food in his mouth.
"Yes." Ziyi and Du Jiankang spoke at the same time. Now both of them looked at each other, motioning for the other to speak first.
Ziyi was just making small talk to distract Yike's thoughts. He hadn't thought of what to say yet, but when he saw Du Jiankang was about to speak, he quickly stopped and motioned for him to speak first.
Du Jiankang actually hadn't thought of what to say, so he motioned to Ziyi to speak first. As a result, the two of them just looked at each other, and no one spoke first.
When Yike saw Ziyi and Du Jiankang looking into each other's eyes without saying anything, he suddenly remembered the idiom "eye contact conveys affection" and could not help but burst out laughing.
When Ziyi and Du Jiankang saw Ziyi smile, they felt that they had achieved their goal and they both breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ziyi, what do you want to say? You say it first. You can say it after you say Brother Jiankang. Is Brother Jiankang okay?" Yike said happily. She was in a good mood again.
"Okay!" After Du Jiankang agreed, he quickly thought about what to say next.
"I don't have anything to say. I just want to ask you if you want some soup. If you do, I'll fill it for you." Ziyi really couldn't think of what to say, so he could only say this.
"Oh! I haven't finished my meal yet. I'll drink the soup after I finish. So, brother Jiankang, what do you want to say?"
"I, I just wanted to ask you, how are you going to sell so many chickens and ducks when they grow up? And chicken eggs and duck eggs are easy to break, and it would be difficult to sell out if there are too many. Then I thought that Ziyi must have thought of a solution a long time ago, so I decided not to ask." Du Jiankang thought for a long time but couldn't think of what to say, so he just said something random.
"I really haven't thought about this yet." Ziyi frowned and said, "What Jiankang said makes sense. We can't take too many eggs at once, as they are fragile. But if we take too few, we have to go back and forth more often, which will delay the work. Even if the chickens and ducks are sent out alive, we can't take too many at a time. We really need to think of a way to send more at a time."
"Eggs can't be transported in a wheelbarrow, and even if we put the chickens and ducks in a basket, we can't carry many. Not to mention health, I haven't even thought of this. Why don't we kill the chickens and ducks and take them out, so that we can take a lot. Take as many eggs as you can, and eat the rest yourself or hatch chicks and ducklings. Do you think this will work?" Du Qingcang said.
"It's okay, but if I kill him, some people will look down on him and say he was dead, or died of illness, and I can't sell him for a good price." Ziyi said after thinking for a while.
"It doesn't matter if it's a little. At least we can sell it for money and we don't have to go hunting in the future. Every time you go out hunting, we at home are worried to death." Zhang Yuling said.
"That's right. We can all do farm work at home and raise chickens, ducks, pigs and cows. We won't have to worry about food. There's no need to go hunting. Just sell less if possible." Wang Cuihua also said following Zhang Yuling.
"That won't do. We have such a good opportunity, we must earn more money. When the situation outside gets better in the future, everyone will go out to live. Going out will cost a lot of money. Why not make money now that we have the chance to do so?" Yi Ke got angry when he heard their tone of voice that said they didn't want money.
Although we can’t talk about money in everything, but we really can’t live without money. When you live outside the mountains, which of the daily necessities, food, clothing, and shelter can be solved without money? So if you have the money but don’t make it, you’re a fool. But she won’t be a fool. And she set up such a big place not just for eating.
"We don't want to go out. We have fields and land here. It's not worse than outside. Outside is not as good as here." Wang Cuihua said.
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