Chapter 694: Infant-Eating Habit

After planting the bamboo, evening had arrived.

Xia Qing took Sheep Lao Da, carrying a bamboo basket, and went to the breeding greenhouse to catch chickens.

After the weasel family moved out of the sheep shed, Xia Qing had given the chicken coop and chicken run at home a thorough cleaning. Taking advantage of the evening when the flock had already roosted to rest, she planned to catch the big hens that weren't brooding or raising chicks and move them back to the chicken coop.

As more and more chicks hatched, the already not-very-large chicken run inside the greenhouse was getting more and more crowded. If she didn't move another batch of big hens out, a trampling incident might occur.

Moreover, it was already mid-March now. Daytime temperatures had already reached 20 degrees, and at night they wouldn't drop below zero. The big hens could be completely half-free-range outside, leaving the safer chicken run inside the breeding greenhouse for the brooding hens, the hens with chicks, the chicks themselves, the pregnant doe rabbit, and the spring-water fish full of roe.

The chickens were fine, but the doe rabbit needed a quiet environment to give birth. The Black Feather rooster started practicing his voice every day just past four in the morning, screeching at the top of his lungs—far too noisy.

To avoid startling the rabbit and the brooding hens, Xia Qing caught the chickens without letting them make a single sound.

How did she manage that?

When she got hold of a chicken, she just pinched its beak, pinned its wings, and tied it up.

The first one Xia Qing took down was that evolved Black Feather rooster. She hadn't expected that after she muzzled, bound, and stuffed this aggressive one into the cage, the Bai Yu hen wouldn't stand for it—she hopped out of her nest, clucking, and tried to peck Xia Qing's hand.

It was fast, but the light was too dim now and its night vision was poor. It charged over and not only failed to peck Xia Qing, but got pinned by her and tied up.

This hen was brooding, so she couldn't be moved back to the chicken coop. Xia Qing set her aside and continued catching the non-brooding hens.

The other Green Lantern chickens weren't evolved breeds, so Xia Qing easily caught all the ones she needed to, stuffed them in the cage, and let Sheep Lao Da carry them home.

After Xia Qing untied the ropes on the Bai Yu hen, this advanced evolved chicken pecked her hand hard.

Even if a chicken was an advanced evolution, it wouldn't cause any real harm to Xia Qing wearing snake-skin gloves. She flicked the Bai Yu hen under the head, then stroked the Yi Stone beads around its neck, and let the chicken go.

"You ungrateful little thing, go back to brooding. If you don't hatch out ten chicks, you'll never repay all the investment this old lady poured into you!"

After saying that, Xia Qing turned on the lights inside the breeding greenhouse.

The Bai Yu hen clucked around in two circles before returning to her nest to continue brooding. The other few brooding or chick-rearing hens hadn't moved from their spots at all from the moment Xia Qing started catching chickens until now.

After filling the chicken flock's water supply sufficiently, Xia Qing turned to check the doe rabbit in the rabbit cage. Confirming everything was normal and it hadn't been startled, she added plenty of water and fodder for it, then turned off the lights, went to the adjacent planting greenhouse to pick two cucumbers and cut a handful of chives, and headed home to cook.

After walking out of the greenhouse, Xia Qing paused and listened carefully for a while, confirming everything was normal inside the breeding greenhouse, before heading toward home.

She was being so careful because that pregnant doe rabbit had started plucking the fur from her belly and the sides of her feet that very morning.

This made Xia Qing very happy. Because after Blue Star's evolution, wild-caught rabbits were very hard to keep alive and successfully breed. So even though the wild rabbit was pregnant, Xia Qing was still worried whether it could safely give birth to the baby rabbits and raise them.

Now, the doe rabbit had started plucking fur to build a warm and comfortable nest, which meant she was about to give birth to baby rabbits within the next day or two.

This was truly a very good omen. After gaining the second generation of chickens, her territory was about to gain the second generation of rabbits!

Xia Qing hummed a little tune as she got home, and put the chickens from the cage into the chicken coop. The Black Feather rooster strutted proudly around the inside of the coop once, then hopped up onto the roost to continue resting. After the hens had settled too, Xia Qing turned off the coop lights and brought Sheep Lao Da back inside the house.

Busy from morning till night, Xia Qing was both tired and fulfilled. Listening to the lords' chatter and the broadcast, she began preparing dinner.

Because she was tired, she had to treat herself well. Xia Qing took a few ribs out of the refrigerator, made a rib and bamboo shoot soup, plus chive scrambled eggs and smashed cucumber.

She had picked two cucumbers in total—one for her, one for Sheep Lao Da.

After eating her fill, Xia Qing finished listening to the farming knowledge broadcast, left Sheep Lao Da to guard the house, and went out to patrol the territory.

Cameras couldn't cover every corner of the territory, so since Wolf Lao Er had left, Xia Qing patrolled the territory twice every night before she could feel at ease.

The first round was completely normal. On the second patrol at ten p. m., when she reached the outside of the breeding greenhouse, Xia Qing heard an abnormal crunching sound.

This was... the sound of a carnivore gnawing on its prey!

Xia Qing grabbed her gun and rushed in. When she saw clearly what was happening in the rabbit cage, she pressed her lips tightly together.

Good news: the rabbit she was raising had finally given birth.

Bad news: the doe rabbit was eating the baby she had just given birth to.

Xia Qing holstered her handgun, crept forward quietly, took out the baby rabbit that had been gnawed down to only half remaining, and put it into a packaging bag.

After confirming once more that the water and feed in the rabbit cage were both sufficient, Xia Qing stepped back and quietly watched the doe rabbit.

The books on raising rabbits she had collected specifically described the phenomenon of a doe rabbit gnawing on the baby rabbits she had just given birth to, calling it "infant-eating habit."

The reason this phenomenon might occur could be that the doe rabbit was nutritionally deficient, lacked water during birth, or experienced a stress response due to noise disturbance. Another possibility was that the doe rabbit simply had a weak maternal instinct.

First, rule out the lack of water, because there was still pollution-free spring water in the rabbit cage.

Second, a stress response caused by being startled could be ruled out. It had already been four hours since she moved the chicken flock out, and in the previous few hours this rabbit had been very calm, showing no stress response.

Third was the nutrition issue. Xia Qing fed the rabbits entirely with Green Lantern plants. Worried that the pregnant rabbit wasn't getting enough nutrition, she had also, according to the feed formula in the book, added small amounts of salt, wheat bran, and corn to the doe rabbit's fodder. Under her care, all three rabbits had grown plump and chubby, and on the surface didn't appear to lack nutrition. Whether they actually did or not would only be known after testing.

Currently, looking at it, the most likely cause of this doe rabbit gnawing on her young was the weak maternal instinct.

This left Xia Qing somewhat at a loss.

Ten-some minutes later, after the doe rabbit gave birth to a second baby rabbit, she began licking it—this was normal behavior.

But as she licked and licked, Xia Qing heard the newly born baby rabbit let out a faint "Squeak—," and immediately rushed over.

When she pulled the baby rabbit out, she found its skin had already been licked raw by the doe rabbit.

Xia Qing frowned, immediately disinfected and applied medicine to the baby rabbit, and placed it in the small basket she had prepared in advance.

From the third, fourth, all the way to the sixth baby rabbit, without exception, the doe rabbit licked first, then bit. As a result, the small basket now held five more baby rabbits that had been injured the moment they were born.