Chapter 118: Catching Chickens

Regardless of his doubts, since it had already appeared before him, Baifeng could only face it directly, so he took the "chicken" from that tribesman and examined it carefully.

Looking at it from a bit further away, it was no different from the roosters of later generations: an orange-red body, blue-black tail feathers, a standard rooster indeed; but looking closely, there were some differences—there were many white spotted patterns on its chest, and its legs were also black; except for Silkie chickens, Baifeng had only ever seen chickens with this feather color have yellow legs.

Could this really be a wild chicken? Baifeng's suspicion was more than half gone, but it was a pity it was dead, otherwise, he would know by observing its living habits and flight ability; he pulled on its wings, but Baifeng couldn't tell if this kind of wing could actually fly, as chickens of later generations could also flap and fly a little.

Baifeng's breadth of knowledge wasn't that wide, and in the end, he didn't know that what he was looking at was a Red Junglefowl; perhaps the chickens of the ancients were domesticated from this kind of wild chicken.

"Where was this caught?" Baifeng asked the tribesman who had caught the chicken.

"It was right in the Reed Marsh; I found it there while I was cutting Grass, so I caught it; it didn't fly up."

Baifeng nodded, then had the Shaman record a work point for him; although this small harvest was not enough to warrant a record, because this discovery of his might very well add a new type of poultry to the Baifeng Tribe, it would be treated as a reward; if enough chickens could really be caught, he could be given some extra work points.

As for this chicken, it was naturally taken away by Baifeng; he still missed the taste of chicken very much; what he could usually eat were wild chickens, namely the Ring-necked Pheasant or the Lady Amherst's Pheasant; although they were strictly protected in later generations, they were very common now, large in number, and extremely frequent, though their taste was quite different from chicken meat. (A guess, I haven't eaten them; I am a law-abiding good citizen and don't want to be provided with room and board.)

He ate a dry-pot chicken meal together with Sui, and Sui gave a very high evaluation of the taste of this bird, but Baifeng felt the flavor was still insufficient; the bit of spiciness from the prickly ash wasn't enough and didn't hit the right note.

Now the Baifeng Tribe had a new goal, and that was to catch chickens; how to raise them after catching them was a very simple matter—one only needed to clip their wing feathers and they wouldn't be able to fly, and Baifeng estimated that with their body size and build, they shouldn't be able to fly very high or very far, perhaps just gliding or flying as high as a tree at most.

The difficulty lay in how to catch them; catching dead ones was simple, catching live ones was hard, and one had to have both males and females; although the tribesman said it was found in the Reed Marsh, based on Baifeng's knowledge of domestic chicken habits from later generations, the possibility of them spending the night in trees was higher, and their body size was much larger than ordinary birds, so the Reed Marsh wasn't very easy to hide in; that tribesman probably just had good luck.

In order to catch the chickens, the Baifeng Tribe prepared large nets, many lassos, and bamboo cages; they didn't understand why they had to make such a big fuss preparing these just to catch some birds alive, as they were only a bit bigger and better-looking than other birds—there was no need for it.

However, this time Baifeng explained it to them, because after such a long time, they also had some thinking ability; Baifeng used the cattle herds as an example for them: there were so many cattle in the wild, but why did they raise them? Because raising them was more reliable and stable, and they could continue to reproduce.

If it were in the past, Baifeng definitely wouldn't have explained it to them; only when they saw big fat birds running all over the ground, unable to fly, and able to lay eggs and crow like an alarm clock, would they know the benefits of raising chickens.

Before starting the hunt, one had to carefully search for the location of the chickens; unfortunately, Baifeng made a mistake at the time and didn't show the chicken to everyone, otherwise someone might have remembered where there were chickens; the hunters had definitely all seen them, they just hadn't paid special attention to them—no matter how big a bird was, it was still just a bird, not as important as a wild boar or a deer.

Fortunately, Sui thought the feathers were pretty, so she kept them, showed the tail feathers to everyone, and described them roughly; many people indicated that they had seen them; Baifeng tallied the locations they mentioned, and although they were all different, more people had seen them near Dahu.

The people from the Fishing Team said they rarely saw them in the Reed Marsh, only occasionally seeing them flapping and flying; Baifeng felt his guess was probably correct—the chicken flock should be in the forest around Dahu, and they might come to Dahu because there was more food there.

Thus, the people from the Hunter Team went to scout near Dahu first, preferably finding the place where the chickens spent the night, because if they spent the night there, their droppings would definitely be left in the vicinity, which was a relatively obvious sign.

The first day, there was no situation; although they saw the chickens Baifeng spoke of, they didn't find their nest, so they continued to scout; it wasn't until the second day that they said they had found a place where the chickens likely spent the night, because droppings and chicken feathers were both there, and they produced a handful of chicken feathers they had picked up as proof.

Since the hunters felt it was almost certain, Baifeng had no reason to refute it, so they prepared to raid the chicken nest at night, because they didn't return during the day while foraging, and at night, the vision of most birds could be said to be zero; as long as there was light shining on it, it could only stay motionless and wait.

Acting at night was actually quite dangerous for the Baifeng Tribe, after all, many wild beasts came out to hunt at night, but the Baifeng Tribe's night blindness had improved a lot by now, and the moon on the scene was also round and bright, so the visibility was still passable.

As long as the Weapon was carried well and there were enough people, they weren't afraid of fierce beasts; after all, they had even killed a tiger last time; although the moonlight being too bright might give the wild chickens a chance to escape, Baifeng and the others mostly needed the wild chickens to give them a hunting opportunity in the nest; after all, with so many people and carrying nets, it was impossible to go back empty-handed.

Now was not a Feudal Society; the Tribal Chief had privileges, but he also needed to lead by example and couldn't just lie around waiting for the tribesmen to contribute, so at night, Baifeng led the crowd and marched toward Dahu.

Along the way, they could hear wolf howls coming from very far away; fortunately, they were not in their territory, otherwise, Baifeng wouldn't mind carrying out another sweep.

Arriving not far from the chicken nest the tribesmen mentioned, to avoid startling them, the crowd stopped; Baifeng took out his Telescope to observe; although the moonlight was bright, it was only dotted light when it fell into the forest, but Baifeng still saw the presence of wild chickens.

Baifeng made a gesture, and everyone, as previously discussed, divided into several teams, each carrying a large net to surround one side; they climbed into the trees and then pulled the large nets flat to form a net wall; they were all very cautious, fearing they would startle the wild chickens.

After tying the nets, everyone held the net traps and lassos and began to attack the wild chicken flock; at this time, they were no longer afraid of startling them, as they were surrounded by nets on all sides, and no matter how they tried to escape, they would only be within this range; with their body size, they couldn't fly directly into the sky unless they were helicopters.

Looking closer, this flock of wild chickens had about several dozen; after aiming, Baifeng was the first to snap the landing net down; the wild chickens felt something was wrong and began to struggle frantically, but the tribesmen nearby had already rushed up and pinned the wild chickens down, then took them out and locked them into bamboo cages.

The others also moved at the same time; the wild chickens were scared into clucking and calling, and even though they couldn't see the path, they flapped their wings and flew around wildly; Baifeng felt his face get hit many times by the wild chickens.

They didn't catch many the first time, and most ran away, but now they were struggling everywhere; several tribesmen chased after a wild chicken, the scene was extremely chaotic, and the clucking, fearful cries of the wild chickens, the screams of humans, the shouting, and the cursing of "pig teammates" completely woke up this forest.