Chapter 156: Good Education

Chapter 156: Good EducationThese wild chickens in the chicken coop still maintain their glorious image of bald wings and bare buttocks. It's not that Han Cheng has magical hands that can make no grass grow after his treatment; instead, he takes the time to give these chickens a haircut every once in a while.

Although the methods are somewhat cruel, and the chickens look miserable after the haircut, the results are pretty good.

At least now, these guys flop around with their meaty wings and can't lift their feet off the ground.

Without feathers on their wings, they cannot fly and are confined within a small chicken coop. They can't run long distances. With each generation being raised this way, there will eventually come a day when they are entirely domesticated.

The wildness in these chickens has diminished, and they have gradually become accustomed to the presence of humans.

At least, after Han Cheng's arrival, they no longer cower in a corner, shivering with their bald buttocks facing him, as they did initially.

When Han Cheng approaches, they may still be slightly startled, but they just stand there or lie down, staring at him.

Han Cheng remains still, engaging in a silent battle of wills through the gaps in the wooden planks.

Naturally, Han Cheng emerges victorious in this silent battle against the chickens.

These days, the chickens, who have gradually become accustomed to this ruthless little monkey, resume their everyday lives after a brief confrontation.

The bolder ones may even perform some indescribable actions right before the little monkey, launching a practical attack against the single little monkey.

While these chickens wander around, in a corner, there is a chicken with much more vigorous feathers than the others lying there motionless. While others eat and drink, it remains indifferent.

This chicken lying on the straw nest made of hay is brooding eggs, commonly known as setting a nest.

Initially, Han Cheng didn't want it to set up a nest because it wouldn't lay eggs once it started.

Later, he thought about it. Just-born chicks are more accessible to domesticate, fulfilling the dream of this mother hen.

However, Han Cheng conducted a preliminary examination before the eggs were officially brooded.

This particular examination, like the prenatal examination in later times, was aimed at the fetus. However, this fetus was quite uniqueit hadn't been born yet but had already run to the outside of its mother's belly.

Prenatal examinations were necessary for eugenics.

Of course, Han Cheng's primary purpose was to select the eggs that couldn't hatch into chicks and then eat them to avoid waste.

This was quickly done. In later times, when the hens were ready to set a nest, and it was time to select eggs suitable for hatching, Han Cheng handled it because his grandmother's eyesight wasn't good anymore.

When Han Cheng conducted these egg examinations, just like in later times, he chose a dazzling noon when sunlight streamed in. He had someone bring the stone slab used to block the door, covering the entrance to brighten up this dark corner.

Han Cheng picked up an egg from a small straw-filled basin, with the large end facing upward. He leaned in, using his left hand to cover the gap above the egg, forming a semi-circle with his right hand. This way, he could see the inside of the egg through the thin shell.

If the egg could hatch into a chick, a small pit would be inside the large end. If there was no pit, the egg wasn't fertilized and would be a waste to incubate. After incubating with the rest of the eggs for twenty-one days, nothing would happen except for it turning rotten.

Moreover, the smaller the shadowy pit inside, the better the fertilization, indicating a higher chance of successfully hatching a chick.

When selecting eggs, it's best to choose those with smaller shadowy pits.

Besides the higher hatching success rate, another reason is that the smaller the shadowy pit, the greater the chance that the hatched chick will be a hen.

In the past, most households raised hens for laying eggs, so hens were highly valued.

The combat power of these two roosters was indeed formidable. Among the twelve eggs, not a single one was unfertilized. This disappointed Han Cheng, who was hoping to pick one or two to eat. After all, now there was animal fat available, and imagining frying some wild onions with eggs in a flat-bottomed clay pot made his mouth water.

After observing for a while without finding eggs, Han Cheng left with a somewhat disappointed Fu Jiang.

These wild chickens weren't cutting it. They laid too few eggs, and after laying six, seven, eleven, or twelve eggs, they would stop to prepare for hatching chicks. They couldn't compare with the hens in later times who laid one or two eggs a day or those in specialized chicken farms.

To train these wild hen-like chickens to lay more eggs, besides the chicken with longer feathers, Han Cheng didn't allow the other hens to incubate eggs.

Every time they laid an egg, Han Cheng would take one away. Without eggs to incubate, their egg-laying cycle would shorten, and they would involuntarily prepare for laying another batch of eggs as soon as possible.

However, this required Han Cheng to patrol more often, chasing away those who pretended to incubate eggs but didn't lay any.

Alternatively, he would use a stick to herd the chosen hen-like chicken into a nest, pushing away any competitors.

Han Cheng no longer had deer milk to drink because the deer he often milked got pregnant again with the efforts of the deer lord.

However, weaning wouldn't last too long. Watching the deer lord's group of pregnant wives, Han Cheng felt a faint excitement and couldn't help but admire the formidable combat power of the deer lord.

In a short time, the deer herd of the Green Sparrow tribe would almost double.

Imagine a large group of deer belonging to their tribe peacefully grazing in the grassland. Han Cheng couldn't help but feel excited.

And thinking about himself holding a pottery jar, milking each of these deer one by one, with the jar filled with warm, white milk, Han Cheng became even more excited.

The Deer lord didn't feel annoyed about this little two-legged creature spying on his wives. He seemed a bit excited, just like the little two-legged creature.

Not sure if it was reminded of the taste of milk again, but after staring at Han Cheng for a while, the deer lord extended its head, licked its nostrils, then stretched its neck and lifted the upper lip, revealing its large front teeth, and repeated its classic yet lewd expression.

Eight new guests- four males and four females- were added inside the rabbit enclosure. With them around, the issue of inbreeding among rabbits would no longer be a problem.

During these days, the Green Sparrow tribe had expanded their rabbit breeding efforts, and the rabbits they obtained were not limited to just these eight. The eight chosen ones were carefully selected, while the others that didn't cut had already been skinned and gutted. Some had met their unknown fates.