Chapter 156: Upgrading Chicken Coop
Looking around, the left half of the cultivated land was already mature, which was where the potatoes were sown.
He stepped closer to inspect them and found that the potato plants had yellowed, and the leaves were slightly curled.
According to his own common sense, they should be ready for harvest.
However, before that, to be safe, he still took out the greenhouse terminal to investigate.
After confirming his judgment was correct, he put it back in its original place.
He squatted down and used his hand to push aside the soil at the base of a potato plant. Several round potatoes emerged, their skins covered with moist soil, and they were quite large, estimated to be fist-sized.
Vikram reached out and squeezed the potatoes. They were firm, with no signs of rot or insect bites.
At the same time, he summoned the system and scanned them, discovering that under the effect of the greenhouse, the potatoes not only grew much faster but also had decent quality, reaching a rare grade.
It should be known that the previous cabbage didn’t have this. The potatoes showing a grade this time surprised him a bit.
The grading of food was very simple: the higher the grade, the better the taste, texture, and satiety.
Graded vegetables naturally delighted him, as these were not like the supplies dropped from killing monsters outside.
Although it was easy to drop graded supplies, the drops were completely random. It was not as reliable as growing them himself.
At this moment, Anjali, who was following behind, arrived at the cultivated land with her rice bowl.
"How is it, Vikram? Is my corn ripe?" Of course, she wasn’t here to help; she was purely thinking about her corn.
Hearing this, Vikram smiled and said nothing, but picked up the terminal again to examine it.
"Don’t just look at it by yourself! I want to see it too."
Anjali, who had just reached a height of about 1.65 meters, looked a bit comical next to Vikram, who stood at 1.83 meters.
At this moment, she was shouting and hopping behind him, trying to see the terminal in his hand.
Vikram, unable to resist her, had to squat down and motion for her to look together.
[Potato: Current Status: Fully Mature / Ready for Harvest]
[Quality: Rare Grade]
[Yield: Relatively High]
[Pest and Disease: None]
[Tomato: Current Status: Mature / Harvestable, Quality: Rare, Yield: Relatively High, Pests/Blight: None]
[Corn: Current Status: Fruiting / Not Harvestable, Quality:??, Yield: Relatively High, Pests/Blight: None]
[Peanut: Current Status: Fruiting / Not Harvestable, Quality:??, Yield: Relatively High, Pests/Blight: None].
"Besides potatoes and tomatoes, do the other crops need a few more days?" Vikram muttered to himself.
"Ugh, my corn still needs two more days before I can eat it." Anjali sighed, a little disappointed with the growth of her much-anticipated corn.
"Don’t just stand there, go call Divya and Sophia over so we can harvest the vegetables together. Tonight, we can finally eat something different." He waved his hand, signaling her to go quickly.
"Oh~" Anjali fiddled with her fingers, responded sweetly, and then walked out.
With three people working together, the efficiency was indeed much faster than before.
The crops that ripened first were all harvested into their backpacks in less than half an hour.
Vikram and the other person didn’t feel anything, but Divya always felt that Anjali’s complexion was a bit off today.
She wondered for a while but ultimately didn’t think too much about it.
The four of them, carrying backpacks full of potatoes and tomatoes, were about to put all these crops into the warehouse.
Passing by the simple chicken coop Vikram had dug with his bare hands, they discovered a pleasant surprise.
The chickens he had taken from the Kabold Ruins had finally laid eggs, and not just one.
Counting carefully, he found that there were a total of 4 eggs in the chicken nest, having not been there for several days.
Considering that the hens had only recently reached maturity, this egg-laying speed was quite decent.
Moreover, this chicken coop was dug casually back then, and the facilities inside were truly dilapidated.
Their sleeping place consisted of a few broken thatched straws.
Aside from a hot air duct leading here, sunlight, food, and other things were not really taken into account.
They were still eating the chick feed from before, which was somewhat insulting to the chickens.
He directly extended his right hand into the narrow chicken coop and carefully retrieved the four pitiful eggs.
During this time, Vikram was pecked several times by the hens, but fortunately, it was nothing serious.
He didn’t rush to put them into the system space; before that, he wanted to scan them with the system first.
Otherwise, if fertilized eggs were handled by him like this, they would definitely not survive.
[Egg X2: Unfertilized.]
[Egg X2: Fertilized.]
"Exactly half and half, huh?" He said, then quickly and gently placed the two eggs that could hatch chicks back under the hen’s bottom.
He took out the remaining two and showed them to the two women, who were equally surprised, saying, "Tonight, besides potatoes and tomatoes, we have a new dish."
Handing the eggs to the equally surprised Anjali, he then spoke in a commanding tone, "This Director wants to eat scrambled eggs with tomatoes tonight. The important task of cooking is entrusted to you."
"Yes, I guarantee the mission will be completed." She took the two eggs with both hands as if she had found a treasure.
Divya’s gaze fell on the slightly comical scene, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up slightly, revealing a faint smile.
After the two left, Vikram began to consider renovating the chicken coop.
It is known that egg-laying efficiency is directly related to temperature and light.
The current temperature was acceptable, but the chicken coop, which relied only on the ambient light from the adjacent greenhouse, was clearly not up to par for lighting.
He temporarily herded the chickens inside into the greenhouse, giving them plenty of feed to prevent them from pecking at his vegetables.
Then he plunged into the chicken coop, where the smell was truly uncomplimentary.
Although Divya was diligent and cleaned it daily, the smell lingered persistently.
This time, he planned a major overhaul of the chicken coop, starting with its size.
Now, upon entering the chicken coop, he could only squat, as its height was insufficient for a person to stand normally.
This was easy to handle; Vikram, a professional at digging mountains for many years, simply used a high-energy drill to tinker with the wall a few times.
Several chicken coop prototypes, much larger than before, appeared before him.
Next was the sanitary environment inside the chicken coop. If this smell wasn’t dealt with and allowed to constantly permeate the coop, not only would the chickens likely get sick.
When the smell eventually wafted out, they wouldn’t be able to stand it either.
He directly summoned the system and had it plan a ventilation duct for him.
For this, he specifically reminded it to make a separate ventilation duct, to prevent the smell from the chicken coop from spreading throughout the Shelter.
Soon, after bringing back dozens of units of stainless steel from the warehouse, a brand new ventilation duct appeared tightly against the ceiling above his head, after he spent 40 Plant Essence.
Natural ventilation was clearly not feasible for an environment like a chicken coop, which has a relatively strong odor.
He also had the system install several exhaust fans connected to the duct.
At this point, the smell in the chicken coop was finally resolved.
Next was the overall internal environment of the chicken coop, such as the floor and walls, which were previously uneven and now completely leveled with cement by him.
It wasn’t luxurious, but at least it was much more pleasing to his eyes than before.
The hot air duct above continued to provide heat to the chicken coop.
They were perfectly suited for the current situation of egg-laying or hatching chicks.
After a flurry of activity in the cramped space, Vikram emerged, covered in dust.
Fortunately, his efforts weren’t in vain; the chicken coop looked much more presentable now.
He checked the size, ventilation, lighting, and temperature, then laid several layers of cloth in a corner of the coop.
Several suitable incubation spots were thus created.
He herded the six chickens, temporarily housed in the greenhouse, back into their coop.
He put his hands on his hips and surveyed his work; the results looked quite pleasing.
The chickens didn’t seem to have any discomfort, and when Vikram gently placed two eggs capable of hatching chicks into a nest, one of the hens instinctively walked over and sat down, carefully covering the eggs with her body.
Although the temperature in the coop wasn’t as high as in the greenhouse, the hen’s body heat was enough to maintain incubation.
He only needed to ensure there was enough chicken feed so the chickens wouldn’t starve; there shouldn’t be any problems.
"Hmm... it finally looks much better," he nodded, a satisfied smile on his face.
But then he immediately thought, "My territory now has all kinds of food: flying, running, and growing in the soil."
He paused, "All that’s missing is something that swims. But I don’t know where to find fish."
He gave an awkward laugh and pushed those temporarily impractical thoughts out of his mind.
Just as he was about to boil some water to wash himself thoroughly, his communicator on his left wrist chimed.