Chapter 121 Added Chapter
"Is it the organic fertilizer we make?" Du Jiankang asked, staring at Yi Ke with his bright eyes. He was in charge of the organic fertilizer that was made some time ago. He knew best how those dead leaves, weeds, pig manure and cow manure were slowly turned into organic fertilizer. It was completely turning waste into treasure.
"Eat while we talk." Ziyi handed a steamed bun to Yike and blocked Du Jiankang's gaze with his arm.
"Oh." Yike took a bite of the steamed bun obediently, "Brother Jiankang is right, it's that kind of organic fertilizer. We can let earthworms produce this kind of organic fertilizer continuously."
"Then do more. Let's start preparing today. Tomorrow we will go find earthworms. After the earthworms are put in for breeding, brother Qingcang will be in charge of the orchard, and sister-in-law Cuihua and wife will be in charge of the vegetable garden. Ziyi and Yike will be responsible for digging holes for breeding. You will still be responsible for health as before. I will not be responsible because I have to go out often. After this method is successful, you can ask Li Youcai, Hu Haohan and Chen Shengli to learn it. If they don't want to, forget it. However, the method of making organic fertilizer last time can be taught to them. Let them exchange the method with labor. Ziyi will go down and tell them." Li Haoran arranged.
"Jiankang and I are going to catch giant salamanders later, so let's talk to them while we're at it," said Ziyi.
"Go ahead, let's go dig a hole with Yi Ke first and prepare to raise earthworms." Li Haoran thought for a moment and said, "When you come back, you two can go check if there are any prey in the trap. I won't go and check."
Everyone divided the work and cooperated. Yike and Li Haoran went to find a place suitable for breeding earthworms to dig holes. In less than half a day, they dug three holes that were three meters long, two meters wide and half a meter deep.
We went to the forest and found a place with thick dead leaves. We swept away the dead leaves and took the rotten soil on the surface. This was very fertile soil, just right for breeding earthworms. In the later stage, we just needed to add some fresh cow dung, pig manure or this kind of rotten soil from time to time to maintain the moisture of the soil.
"Yike, how long does it take to harvest these earthworms?" Du Qingcang asked.
"It usually takes about three months. Earthworms like to eat sour, sweet and fishy foods, so we can take advantage of this and put rotten fruits or boiled sweet potato water mixed with decomposed cow dung and other foods that earthworms like on the surface of the soil. Earthworms have a very sensitive sense of smell and will crawl out of the soil in large numbers to eat, so we can gather them together and collect them. After collecting, we can feed them to chickens, ducks and fish, and we can also collect the soil, which is a very good organic fertilizer. Put soil back into the pit and put the earthworms in to continue breeding, killing two birds with one stone." Yike explained the harvesting method in detail.
"We can also use this method to collect earthworms. We don't need to dig the soil to find earthworms." Li Haoran said.
"Yes, that's a good idea. I'll boil some sweet potato water when I get back." Zhang Yuling said happily.
The breeding grounds and materials here are ready, and everyone goes to the vegetable garden to get the breeding materials. Zhang Yuling and Wang Cuihua go back to boil sweet potato water and lunch.
At noon, Ziyi and Du Jiankang caught more than two dozen giant salamanders and brought them back. Also coming with them were Li Youcai's son Li Dashan, Hu Haohan's son Hu Xiangdong and Chen Shengli's son Chen Dawang.
"Dad, the three of them came here to learn how to make organic fertilizer last time."
"Okay, let's ask Du Jiankang to teach them this afternoon." Li Haoran said, "You should learn from Jiankang. He has been working on this organic fertilizer. He will tell you how to make it."
"Okay, Uncle Hao, let's learn this, then go back and fix it and come to work." Hu Xiangdong said. The other two people also expressed the same idea, that they all learned first and then worked.
"Okay, I don't necessarily want you to exchange your labor for this method. I just don't want anyone to develop the habit of getting something for nothing." Li Haoran looked at the three young men and said seriously.
"We know." Li Xiaoshan and the other two said in unison.
"That's good. Let's eat first so we can work in the afternoon."
…
In the afternoon, Du Jiankang took Li Dashan and three others to learn how to ferment organic fertilizer, while Li Haoran and Du Qingcang went to the orchard. Everyone dug trenches 40 cm wide and 20-25 cm deep between the rows of fruit trees, then mixed the chicken, duck, cattle and sheep feces, weeds, dead branches and leaves brought with the silt from the stream, covered them with a layer of soil, and dug drainage ditches. Everything is ready, all you have to do is put the earthworms in.
After returning, Li Haoran and Du Qingcang mixed the sweet potato water with the cow dung they had collected before, and then they went to find a few places where there were earthworms, and spread the mixed sweet potato and cow dung on the ground, preparing to lure the earthworms to crawl out.
The next day, they went to a place where sweet potatoes and cow dung were dumped, and sure enough, they saw dozens of earthworms on the ground. They quickly used a dung basket to sweep the earthworms in and poured them into the bucket. Then they went to several other places and harvested a lot of earthworms.
They placed these earthworms in earthworm breeding pits, vegetable gardens and orchards, but felt that they were not enough, so they boiled sweet potato water and mixed it with cow dung, and took it to many other places to trap earthworms. After doing this for several days, we managed to trap a lot of earthworms and finally gave up.
The following days were a routine life, weeding the sweet potato fields, corn fields and vegetable gardens, setting traps to collect prey, and letting the calves and cows out for a walk - leading the cows to look for wild grass to eat.
The only difference is that Li Haoran not only came out on his own, but also took his wife Zhang Yuling with him. Now Wang Cuihua is responsible for cooking, Du Jiankang has taken over her mother's previous job - feeding pigs, rabbits and sheep, Yi Ke is responsible for herding cattle and cutting grass for cattle, and also helps Wang Cuihua tend to the vegetable garden and raise earthworms in the garden.
Sometimes Ziyi, Yike and Du Jiankang would go to the creek to catch small fish and shrimps for the giant salamanders to eat. If there were any left, they would give them to the chicks and ducklings, or they would find earthworms to feed the hens. The hens may have eaten earthworms, and dozens of hens laid one egg every day.
Yike asked Ziyi to make five wooden boxes. He pasted the walls and bottom of the boxes tightly with newspapers, and covered the sides and bottom of the boxes with thick hay. Yike was ready to experiment with hatching chicks.
The wooden box was ready, and Yike asked Ziyi to build a small wooden house in the hidden cave, leaving only a small window. Then he moved the wooden box into the house and placed it on a row of wooden shelves.
When hatching chicks, you should choose eggs that are of moderate size and have eggshells that are not too thin. Then hold them under light to check whether they are fertilized.
Yike discovered that these eggs were basically fertilized eggs. It seems that the wild rooster is really amazing. He can evenly distribute the eggs to all the hens in the harem.
The eggs were placed in wooden boxes, with fifty eggs in each box, and a thermometer was placed in each wooden box.
The box should have been covered with a quilt, but cotton was such a precious thing, so they just covered it with a mat woven from dry grass. In order to keep it warm, they used three thick grass mats in total.
There is also a thermometer in the wooden house. If the room temperature is too low, charcoal will be burned to raise the temperature. However, it should not be necessary as the weather is hot now.
Yike has to turn the eggs over every day to ensure that the temperature of every part of the egg is uniform and to prevent the egg membranes from sticking together.
When the eggs are incubated for 19 days, you can place the eggs with their heads facing upwards, surround them with hay, and cool them every three to four hours.
Yi Ke put the egg in front of a flashlight and look at it. If he sees red and fuzzy blood vessels, he knows that there is a chick. Otherwise, there is no chick, so he can take it out and throw it away.
After about twenty-one days, the chicks in the wooden boxes hatched one after another. A total of two hundred and sixty eggs were laid, and two hundred and thirty chicks hatched.
"Oh my God! Yike, you are so smart and capable. You can hatch many more chicks than a hen could hatch." Wang Cuihua said excitedly as she looked at the hatched chicks.
"This is all thanks to you. You help me turn the eggs over every day. You almost didn't sleep in the last two days. Otherwise, so many chicks would not have hatched. Especially in the last two days, one or two chicks would hatch from time to time. If I wasn't careful and was slow to pick them up, they would be gone. I couldn't do it by watching them without blinking. This is all thanks to you." Yi Ke said the truth.
During the past two days, Wang Cuihua stayed by the wooden box day and night. Except when she was cooking, she refused to rest at other times.
Ziyi, Du Jiankang and Du Qingcang came back from work and heard that all the chicks had hatched, except for thirty broken eggs, so they all went to the wooden house to see the surprise.
"Yike, the hatching rate is so high. It seems that your experiment is successful. What reward do you want?" Ziyi touched Yike's head happily.
"Don't touch my head, or I won't grow taller. Just reward me by not touching my head anymore." I hate people who want to pat my head.
"Sister Yike, you are amazing. This is really hatched for you. The hens will have nothing to do from now on."
Du Jiankang looked at the group of furry chicks. This was the first time he had seen such chicks in his life. Moreover, they were artificially hatched. It was so rare.
"Silly!" Du Qingcang slapped his son on the back of his head and said, "From now on, the hens just need to lay eggs. That way, there will be a lot of eggs, and there will be more chickens. Do you understand?"
"Dad, you beat me silly." Du Jiankang said to his father dissatisfiedly.
I successfully hatched the chicks and I feel great!
Now, as long as they are fed carefully and attentively, the chicks can be raised. In order to ensure the health and nutrition of the chicks, Yike took Ziyi to the forest to find earthworms. Chicks fed with earthworms have strong resistance and are not prone to illness.
"Brother Ziyi, why is this earthworm so slow? It would be great if it could grow bigger quickly so we don't have to search all over the mountains for it." Yike complained.
"We have only been raising them for a short time, so the sooner we raise them, the bigger they will be. When the next batch of chicks hatch, these earthworms will be just right to eat. Don't worry, I'll help you look for them." Ziyi comforted.
It is not time yet to farm earthworms, but the organic fertilizer fermented for the first time can be used.
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