Training the Heavens

Chapter 215 It’s Really a Golden Egg

Quail is an animal with high economic benefits. It starts laying eggs around 42-45 days after birth. After the female quail enters the egg-laying period, most of them will lay one egg a day, and during the peak period, they can even lay one and a half to two eggs a day.

This high level of egg production can be maintained for several months. As time goes by, the egg production rate will gradually decline, and by this time a new batch of quail will have entered the egg-laying period.

Xu Lingjun, together with Guo Chenzi, Haisheng, Dong Kuan and others, built a quail breeding shed.

Li Xiuzhi, along with other women including Aunt Dong, Aunt Guo, Niu Fengying, and Haisheng's wife, hatched the accumulated quail eggs according to the training method and used the anal identification method to distinguish the genders.

To do this, hold the quail head down with its back pressed against the palm of your left hand. Then, use your right index finger and thumb to gently pry open the cloaca. If the cloacal membrane is yellow with a small genital protuberance in the center, it's a male. If it's light black with no genital protuberance, it's a female.

This method can also be used for laying hen farming with slight changes. Male quails have lower economic value, so they are humanely destroyed after being identified and used to supplement nutrition for the dogs in the production team.

At the beginning, Dahuang and Erhuang were quite happy, but after eating for a while, they couldn't bear it anymore. They ran around the quail farm when passing by. They were really tired of eating.

Li Xiuzhi and others used scientific breeding methods and carefully cared for the little quails. Gradually, differences in the division of labor emerged. Aunt Guo, Aunt Dong and others were old and learned things slowly, so they could only do rough work. The slightly more delicate work fell on young people like Li Xiuzhi and Haisheng's wife.

After about a month, the first batch of quail began to lay eggs. Just as Xu Lingjun said, these little guys laid at least one egg a day, and occasionally three eggs in two days, or even two eggs a day.

When counting the harvest every day, the smiles on the faces of these aunties and young wives never stopped, "Fifty-six, fifty-seven, seventy-four, seventy-five, ninety-two, ninety-three, one hundred and thirty-six, one hundred and thirty-seven"

"Wow, today we got almost 200 eggs, 7 cents each, 200 eggs is 14 yuan, 14 yuan a day, 420 yuan a month, more than 5,000 yuan a year!" Haisheng's wife couldn't help but count on her fingers.

"You've calculated too few. There are now 200 quails a day because that's how many were hatched in the first batch. The second and third batches are almost grown up, and they will be able to lay eggs in a few days." Li Xiuzhi corrected her mistake while collecting the selected good eggs and preparing to hatch them in an incubator.

Haisheng's wife nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, yes. Next month, maybe we can collect a thousand quail eggs a day. Oh my God, wouldn't that mean seventy yuan a day? Twenty-one thousand a month, twenty-five thousand a year! Am I right?"

She was horrified by the number. In her twenty-plus years of life, she had never once counted money in units of ten thousand. At home, she rarely had the opportunity to calculate to the hundreds digit.

"The calculation is correct, but Lao Xu said that seven cents per egg is the temporary purchase price set by the local products company. If there are more and more quail eggs in the future, the price may drop a little." Li Xiuzhi reminded.

"Even if it's five cents, it's still much more profitable than raising chickens. How much do chickens eat in a day? How much do quails eat? A chicken lays maybe a hundred eggs a year at best, but a quail might lay two or three hundred! If the price drops in the future and we increase production, we can still make a lot of money."

"We can earn tens of thousands of yuan by working hard for a year?" Aunt Dong couldn't believe it for a moment. "Old Dong and Old Guo work so hard to herd sheep, how much can they earn in a year? So we earn more than them now?" "Did they calculate it wrong?" Aunt Guo found it hard to accept. In their view, it has always been men who make the big money, and it is good enough for women to take care of the family and earn a little money. How come it is the other way around now?

"We should be able to earn tens of thousands of yuan," Li Xiuzhi said. "But you can't calculate it that way. Uncle Dong and Uncle Guo go up the mountain to graze the livestock, so we can save enough to hand over. Otherwise, how would we have the chance to raise quails? And they built this shed, too, so they also contributed to the tens of thousands of yuan."

The production team was responsible for production, but it was not just a matter of dividing up pastures and livestock. They also had annual tasks to hand over a certain number of cattle, sheep, and horses, and only the excess was theirs, just like paying public grain for farming.

If they fail to pay, the farm will take back the livestock and pasture, and they will lose the opportunity to do a side job. So even though the money earned from grazing is not as good as raising quails, this work cannot be neglected.

Moreover, this situation can only last for a few years. In the future, more and more people will raise quails, and the price of quail eggs will plummet. This business is far less long-lasting than raising cattle and sheep.

At the end of the month, Xu Lingjun and Guo Chenzi drove a tractor to the county with boxes of quail eggs. They found Niu Guiping, who opened the boxes and was delighted. "You really raised these? They're in high demand. Many restaurants in the provincial capital have to pay a lot of money to buy them from outside. Our local product company can sell them right here in the provincial capital."

Without saying a word, he counted the number and accepted the quail eggs. This batch of goods could not only help the local products company make money, but also make them stand out in front of their leaders. Niu Guiping was very happy.

Even more joyful things were yet to come. Xu Lingjun left a box of quail eggs unsold and sent them directly to Niu Guiping's home. In the past two years, the sales of quail eggs mainly relied on the local product company. Firstly, the policy had just been relaxed, and it was too risky to sell them outside; secondly, the production team also lacked talents who could do long-distance sales. Xu Lingjun already had a lot of things to do, and he was too busy to let him do this.

"Don't do it again, don't do it again!" Niu Guiping repeatedly reminded him before accepting the quail eggs. Xu Lingjun pretended not to hear him. When he sold quail eggs next month, his eggs would definitely be included.

Back at the production team, Xu Lingjun did the math in front of everyone. "Excluding losses, we sold a total of 938 quail eggs this month, at seven cents each, for a total of yuan. The cost was three cents each, for a total of yuan. So, just from raising quails, we've earned yuan this month."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Guo Zizi was smoking and choked when he heard the number. "So many?"

"What's wrong? Do you look down on us female comrades?" Aunt Dong glared at him.

"No, no, I just think this is too much money! This really is a golden egg!"

(End of this chapter)