Chapter 93 - Earthworm
Chapter 93: Earthworm
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In fact, it was completely unnecessary for Mrs. Yao to remind him. How could he marry a woman who came from the same family background as him?
While Yao Nian was hiding in a dark corner and thinking about how to plot against Yu Bing, Yu Bing found out from a woman who married into the He Mountain Brigade that there was a fish pond at their house. Yu Bing knew that they would start draining the fish pond to fish at the end of the year. Thinking of the chicks in the orchard, she had an idea.
Village Committee Office
Yu Bing entered the village chief’s office and said excitedly, “Mr. Wu, I have something to discuss with you.”
When Wu Jin saw Yu Bing’s expression, he knew that she must have another good idea. He smiled and said, “From the looks of it, you must have something good to tell me.”
Yu Bing nodded with a smile. “I heard that there’s also a fish pond in the neighboring county. Now that it’s dry, I want to take the opportunity to bring people over to catch some earthworms to feed the chickens! Our village will also organize people to search in the vegetable garden.”
Wu Jin frowned and asked, “Catch some earthworms to feed the chickens? Did you read that from a book again? No one has ever mentioned it before.”
This information was from news reports from later generations of her previous life. The benefits of earthworms had yet to become public knowledge.
Yu Bing said, “Mr. Wu, don’t worry about it. This is definitely effective. Earthworms contain rich proteins that can promote the growth of chickens and make it easier for them to lay eggs!”
Wu Jin looked at Yu Bing suspiciously, but thinking of Yu Bing’s capabilities and cautious personality, he chose to believe her. He gave Yu Bing a letter of recommendation.
Yu Bing hurriedly pulled the 15 people Wu Jin had assigned to her to the Little Lake Village in the neighboring county city. The Little Lake Village was close to the lake, so other than farming, the fish pond was their main industry.
Little Lake Village’s village chief was very curious when he saw the letter. “Earthworms can raise chickens?”
Seeing this, Yu Bing explained the benefits of raising chickens to the village chief of Little Lake Village. The village chief was skeptical, but there were many earthworms in the fish pond. They didn’t raise chickens, so he didn’t care. He agreed to the request of the He Mountain Brigade.
Yu Bing brought people over early in the morning every day and only returned to the village at night. After two days of nonstop fishing, they obtained four to five hundred catties.
They didn’t have a fish pond on their side yet, so in order to ensure the subsequent usage, Yu Bing found a vacant office and covered the wooden boxes with soil. She raised the half of the earthworms they caught plus the ones found in the village. She just needed to throw some leaves, vegetables, and fruit skins every day.
The farm was built in the orchard and it was just a simple construction of two sheds. There were ten compartments in each shed, and 100 people lived in one. Its main purpose was to shelter the chickens from the wind and rain. Four people were hired to watch over them. The leader was a middle-aged woman called Ren Yue.
Yu Bing gathered the four villagers who were in charge of raising the chickens and taught them how to deal with the earthworms. “Earthworms are the intermediate hosts and communicators of many types of parasites. If you feed them worms directly, the chickens will be infected with parasites and fall ill. Therefore, the earthworms that will be fed the chickens have to be disinfected. You all must take this seriously!”
Yu Bing washed the earthworms with clear water, then boiled them with hot water. After boiling them for about six minutes, she scooped them out, cut them into pieces, and mixed them into the feed to feed the chickens.
The process was very simple, so Yu Bing only asked the team leader to do it once. After discovering that there were no problems, she didn’t ask the team members to do it again. After all, the team leader knew how to do it. No matter how problematic the team members were, the team leader could solve it. She didn’t spend any effort guiding them. As the saying went, if one didn’t know how to supervise well, they would tire themselves to death.
Then, Yu Bing taught them how to preserve it. She heated up the remaining half of the earthworm and dried them. This way, they could directly take them when they needed to use them.
The four of them had a few chickens at home. This was the first time they learned that earthworms could be fed to chickens. They learned very attentively and planned to go home to dig some for their adult hens to try. Unexpectedly, after eating them, they started to collect eggs every day. Everyone was even more impressed with Yu Bing!
The cost of raising chickens had decreased, while the immune system and growth speed of the chicks had effectively increased. The orchard was also in good condition. Yu Bing was in a good mood recently!