Chapter 57: The Chicken Farm

  Because Xiao Ping suddenly decided to raise green egg chickens, everyone in the farm was busy again. The next morning, Wang Dapao and Zhao Quan came to find Xiao Ping together to discuss the location of the chicken farm.

  Xiao Ping had actually considered this matter a long time ago and had already made up his mind. One of the major selling points of Green Shell Eggs is that the laying hens are raised in a natural environment and absolutely do not eat artificial feed. In this regard, the farm has a great advantage, as there are seven or eight hectares of mountainous land lying idle, which would be more than enough to build a chicken farm.

  Xiao Ping shared this idea with Wang Dapao and Zhao Quan, and both of them agreed unanimously. Zhao Quan's only concern was that there were snakes and rats on the mountain, and occasionally even weasels could be seen, which would threaten the safety of the chickens and eggs.

  Xiao Ping also considered this problem, and his solution was to surround the entire chicken farm with iron wire mesh to prevent animals that pose a threat to chickens from entering and exiting at will. From time to time, let Hei Bao and Yuanbao stroll around the chicken farm, with these two big dogs full of spirituality guarding, enough to guarantee the safety of the chicken farm.

  The three men had finalized their discussion and went to the mountain to inspect the location and size of the chicken farm. According to Zhao Quan's calculation, 500 chickens would require only two acres of land. However, Xiao Ping considered future development factors and decided to double the area of the chicken farm. As for the location of the chicken farm, Xiao Ping adopted Zhao Quan's suggestion and built the farm on the downwind edge of the farm, so as not to affect the environment of the entire farm with odors and other issues.

  After determining the location and size of the chicken farm, it's time to start building. As with anything, it's easy to talk about but difficult to do, and building a chicken farm is no exception. Because green egg chickens require free-range farming, the largest area of the farm is over three mu of free-range space. This space is built on the side of a mountain, surrounded by several meters high metal mesh fencing to prevent chickens from escaping and harmful animals from entering. In addition, there are ordinary chicken coops for chickens to roost in at night, special breeding chicken coops, incubation rooms, young chicken coops for raising chicks, etc., which is quite an undertaking.

  To build a chicken farm of this scale, the workers in the farmhouse are not enough. So Xiao Ping contacted Wang Laoban, the boss of the engineering team, and asked him to do it. Wang Laoban had a good impression of Xiao Ping, who was generous with his payments, and sent his men to start construction the next day.

  The rumbling bulldozer first entered the farm, leveling a piece of land near the foot of the mountain. This is where the chicken coop and incubation room will be located in the future. At the same time, the engineering team also started building the fence for the activity area. They followed Xiao Ping's markings, burying iron rods at regular intervals to serve as supports, then binding metal mesh and applying paint, thus forming the boundary fence of the chicken farm.

  Don't look at the three-acre enclosure, the total length of the fence is only about 200 meters, but because the chicken farm is built on a hillside, it's not easy to build this fence. The construction team spent more than a week building the entire fence. At this time, the foundation of the chicken house and incubation room had been laid, and the bricklayers had already started building walls.

  During this time, Xiao Ping and the farm workers were not idle either. They tidied up the environment of the chicken coop, clearing away plants that were too dense, especially on both sides of the fence, to prevent chickens from flying onto trees and escaping in the future.

  In addition to this, it is also necessary to ensure that there are no animals within the chicken farm that can threaten the chickens, so as not to cause losses to the chicken farm. For this reason, Xiao Ping led the farm workers in a strong evacuation team, and with the help of Hei Bao and Yuan Bao, they thoroughly searched the entire area. For the two spiritual dogs, finding hidden animals was no problem at all. They found a den of yellow weasels, two snakes that had already begun hibernation, and several nests of rats within the chicken farm's range. These animals were threats to the chickens and were naturally cleared out without mercy.

  Zhao Quan was very satisfied with Xiao Ping's responsibility for raising chickens, and his work attitude was much more serious than before. In addition to being busy every day building the chicken farm, he would also take time out to check on the green egg chickens in the vegetable greenhouse. To be honest, Zhao Quan was worried about the health of these chickens, the conditions in the vegetable greenhouse were too poor, and it was easy for a chicken plague to occur. If such a situation really happened, more than 500 chickens would die clean within a few days.

  What brings some comfort to Zhao Quan is that so far, all the chickens seem to be in very good condition. Even though they live in crowded big sheds all day, they are all very spirited and their appetite is normal. Many hens have even started laying eggs, and dozens of green-shelled eggs can be picked up in the shed every day.

  Zhao Quan had previously heard that green egg chickens were quite expensive, and what he feared most was the crowded living environment, which could easily lead to a large number of deaths. But the situation in front of him seemed to be completely opposite, with all the chickens being much better than he had imagined, leaving Zhao Quan baffled.

  Xiao Ping would not tell Zhao Quan that this was all the effect of the spiritual liquid. If he hadn't secretly added the spiritual liquid to the drinking water of the green egg chicken every few days, I'm afraid these chickens would have died by now.

  Thanks to everyone's efforts, the construction of the chicken farm is progressing rapidly. By early December, the chicken coop and incubation room were finally ready for use. Xiao Ping was very satisfied with this result, although Suzhou is located in Jiangnan, but from December onwards, the weather really started to get a bit cold, the chicken coop was completed just in time, at least there's no need to worry about the chickens freezing to death at night.

  Now that the chicken farm has been built, it's natural to move all the chickens in. Moving hundreds of chickens is not easy, and the farm was once again a flurry of activity as Xiao Ping and the farm workers were busy for a whole day, finally moving all the green-egg laying hens into their new home.

  Just as Xiao Ping had predicted, the green egg chickens quickly adapted to their new environment. They spent their days roaming around outside in groups, foraging for food in the grass and under trees, and returned to the coop at night. In addition to letting the green egg chickens find wild food, Zhao Quan also provided them with things like rice bran and vegetable leaves, but absolutely did not feed them ordinary feed, so as not to affect the taste of the eggs.

  In terms of feed, the green egg chickens on the farm are no different from those in other places, but there is a big difference in drinking water. Every three days, Xiao Ping will add a few drops of spiritual liquid to their drinking water. Although each chicken can only eat a small amount of spiritual liquid, the effect is very significant, and the most obvious one is that the egg production has increased significantly.

  The green shell eggs are so expensive, and there is a clear relationship with the insufficient production. According to Guo's couple, it's already good if each hen can lay an egg every other day, but in Xiao Ping's place, hens can lay eggs every day, which means that the egg production of hens has at least doubled.

  Xiao Ping was very satisfied with his decision to raise green egg-laying chickens. Even if the farm's eggs were sold at the same price as ordinary green-shelled eggs, these 500+ chickens could bring him a considerable income, not to mention that the number of chickens raised in the future would continue to expand, creating even more economic benefits.

  Not long after the chicken farm's operation had just entered the right track, there was also a delightful thing happening in the alchemy furnace - Tiepi Shidu could finally be harvested.

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