Although there is no shortage of these small pine nuts in the local area every year, and there are even local farmers breeding them in the pine forests on the mountains, Uncle Zhao does not usually catch birds and has never seen or handled them up close.

As mentioned before, pine nuts are not big in size. If the length of the tail is not counted, they are even slightly smaller than orchid nuts.

Such a big little eagle can be used to catch sparrows, and dozens of them can be caught in a day. Seeing the real thing with his own eyes, Uncle Chen was quite curious.

Yue Feng put on cotton gloves, untied the string of ten pine nuts, pinched them in half and let the little eagle stand on his hand.

“Hey, this little thing looks more delicate than the orchid pile! It’s so small, but it can catch birds?”

Uncle Chen looked at the pine nut from all directions with great curiosity and asked.

“Yes! In terms of raising them for fun, orchid seeds are better than pine seeds, but in terms of work, flat pine seeds are more efficient than orchid hunting with a hawk in your hand (hunting with a hawk in your hand, also called a big gun)!

This morning, the first pine nut I tied just became a hawk. I went out for a walk and caught five thieves from my hometown.

Now, the ground is full of little birds in the morning and evening, and they are not afraid of people at all!”

“If you say so, then I’ll have to give it a try!
You can see this orchid has new feathers on its arms. I have been trying to grab them and beat them up for the past few days, fearing that they would damage the new feathers!”

“This little eagle, if you put in some effort and keep doing it, you can probably finish the job in three days!

I brought you four of them this time, along with a matching nest! Do you have anyone suitable?”

Uncle Chen reached out and took the pine nut from Yue Feng’s hand: “There are a few candidates I like, but I can’t be the one rushing to recruit them. It’s as if I’m worthless!

Tomorrow is our village fair, don’t worry, I know what’s going on!! I will definitely be able to gather everyone together!”

“Um, what do you want to do?”

Although Yue Feng knew that the old man did things in a very methodical way, he was still curious and wanted to hear Uncle Chen’s ideas on how to build a team.

Uncle Chen used his index and middle fingers to slowly brush Xiao Songzi’er’s tail, and then said, “Last winter, I released a large hawk for the entire winter. Several old friends met me on the street with a hawk and rabbits on my way home, and they all asked me about the benefits of raising hawks.

I mentioned some of them half-truthfully, and they were very interested! They even wanted me to help them get a few hawks, and they also wanted to make money by flying hawks with me to catch pheasants!
I didn’t say anything definite, but I didn’t agree to it readily either. I just said that it was not the season for hawking now, and that you got this hawk for me. A well-trained hawk that can work can be exchanged for an old ox!

If they were asked to pay a large sum of money to buy the Big Eagle, they would not be able to afford it. Even if they could, they would not be willing to do so, so they gave up for the time being!
I will wait until tomorrow’s big market and bring Xiao Songzi to meet the crowd. I’m sure there will be people interested. I will raise the threshold a little bit and there will be no problem that no one will be willing to follow us to make money by flying hawks!
By the way, for a little pine nut like this, you can only catch some birds as big as the house sparrow, great tit, yellow tit, and goldfinch, right?
If we buy these birds together, how much can we give for each one?”

Yue Feng answered truthfully: “For ordinary sparrows, a young bird that just left the nest costs two cents each, and a large one costs two and a half cents. Other birds of similar size are basically the same price!

Don’t buy the white-eye fish that are too small and have no flesh! If it is a bigger mountain tiger or gray magpie, you can buy it for three cents each! !

This price is the price you offer to the purchasers below. The animals must be alive. I will give you a commission of one cent per animal. If they are dead, the price will be halved!

After I gather them here, I will send them to the city’s government cafeterias or other restaurants, and they can be sold for about five cents each!”

After listening to Yue Feng’s quotation and commission, Uncle Chen raised his eyebrows slightly: “A few cents per eagle, it seems that I can’t make much money after working hard all day? The income from this is not as good as raising large eagles in autumn and winter!”

Yue Feng smiled and nodded and then shook his head: “What you said is both right and wrong!
The income from a single bird is not really high, but it is flexible! You can release it at your doorstep or even in your yard, without having to go to various wastelands.

With the various bird resources we have now in the village, alleys, and fields outside our homes, if we use pine nuts to catch birds, we can catch at least twenty or thirty birds in a day!
Let’s calculate based on an average of twenty fish, and earn fifty cents a day, which is fifteen dollars a month! In summer and autumn, to be conservative, you can catch at least two or three months!
You must have seen the flocks of birds in autumn, covering the sky and blocking out the sun!

If we count the surrounding villages within a dozen miles, and get a dozen people to release eaglets and catch birds, the problem of prey resources will definitely not be a problem!
Moreover, among those who are willing to cooperate, we can also select those who will fly kites and eagles together in the autumn and winter based on their usual performance!
In autumn and winter, we can go to the wasteland and mountains outside our respective villages. There are so many places to make use of. As long as we work hard, the income in a year will definitely be better than just relying on farming!”

After listening to Yue Feng’s analysis, Uncle Chen’s brows slowly relaxed.

You can earn fifty cents a day by releasing hawks. This income level is quite tempting for ordinary people. You have to know that even if you go to the city to work and eat commercial grain, the monthly salary of an ordinary coal worker is only more than 30 yuan.

Uncle Chen: “Hearing what you said, it does seem appropriate!
In a few days, there will be more chicks just out of their nests. You will see them everywhere you go. It will not be difficult to catch 20 birds a day. I can catch 10 or so this morning with my molting eagles!”

Yue Feng smiled and nodded, then took out four ready-made nests from his bag.

“This is a pine needle. It’s best for beginners who are just starting to learn how to fly hawks to use this nest. With it, the hawk won’t be able to fly away! It’s more friendly to beginners!”

“This is called a nest picking device? Can it be used for various purposes?” Uncle Chen picked up a nest picking device and began to study it.

“It’s very simple. First, put it on your wrist, and then…”

Yue Feng personally demonstrated to Uncle Chen how to use the nest, the principle behind it, and the precautions during use.

The old man was a very smart person. He practiced the principle introduced by Yue Feng and quickly figured out the operation method. “Hey, this thing is good. With it, we don’t have to worry about the eagle climbing up trees, walls or drilling mouse holes when we release it!

How much is this? Let’s be honest, we will deduct the money from the account later!”

Yue Feng waved his hand and said, “I made this myself, why should I charge you for it? Even with the rod core, the rattan ring, the string and the leather, it would cost me only one dollar!

However, when you give the young eagle and the nest to the people below, you have to be careful, otherwise they won’t cherish them and will easily destroy them! “

“Don’t worry, I’ve lived half my life, how could I not consider such a detail!

The price of the hawk is ten yuan, and the nest is two yuan. If you want to make money by releasing hawks with us, you need to pay a deposit of 12 yuan first.

If you reach a certain number of prey, the money will be fully refunded. If someone harms the eagles or destroys the equipment, the money will not be refunded!”

Uncle Chen is indeed an old hunter who has lived for most of his life and has a very thorough understanding of human nature.

“Okay! Let’s do as you say! You can take care of these little eagles first, and I’m setting up the net in the woods.

During this period of time, we can catch a few young eagles every day. When our team is well-organized, I will bring you new eagles and nests!”

“Okay! Everything is difficult at the beginning. With these four little pine nuts as the lead, as long as someone tastes the sweetness, we won’t have to worry about the rest.

Although the land has been divided now, the opportunities to make cash are still few, so just don’t worry!”

“Hey! I trust you to do the job!
By the way, when was your eagle put into the cage? I just stood at the door of the barn and watched for a while, and the feathers on its breast have fallen off a lot! “

“I’ve been in the cage for half a month, and when I lost a large wing feather, I knew it was time to put it back in the cage!
This eagle has such a bad temper, it’s hard to tame it! After being in the cage for a few days, it doesn’t recognize people. When I go into the house to clean, it’s so scared that I don’t dare to get close to it!

Nine to ten miscellaneous birds every day, they are not big, but they should be enough to fill you up!

You must be a professional when it comes to handling eagles. Take a look and see if there is anything else that needs to be adjusted on this caged eagle!”

Yue Feng nodded after hearing this. If there were ten birds a day, it would definitely be enough for a big eagle to molt its feathers.

Caging eagles is a science, and it doesn’t mean the more food the better.

Some people may be confused seeing this. Wasn’t it said before that the better the food an eagle in the wild eats, the higher the quality of its feathers will be, and the earlier it will molt?

The same is true for eagles. Why do we say that the more food supply the better when they are caged?

Isn’t this a double standard?

It’s not really double standards, there is some scientific truth in it.

The biggest difference between an eagle in the wild and an eagle in a cage is that there is a significant difference in the amount of activity they do every day.

Wild eagles hunt much more every day than caged eagles. They have a high basal metabolism, eat a rich diet, are in good health, and naturally molt quickly and well.

But for caged eagles, even if it is a case of Uncle Chen who has set aside a separate warehouse to cage the eagles, the eagle’s range of activities is extremely limited.

At this time, the food exceeds a certain limit, and the eagle’s metabolic consumption cannot keep up, so a certain amount of fat will accumulate in the body.

This fat is both a good thing and a bad thing. During the caged hawking process, if too much fat accumulates, it will affect the efficiency of shedding old feathers, and it will do bad things with good intentions.

“Ten sparrows a day is enough to feed a large eagle. If it were me, I would reduce the amount of food supply every two or three days and feed it slowly, which would help the eagle to shed its old feathers!

In addition to laying sand on the ground, you also need to prepare a water basin for the eagle to drink water and take a bath, and change it regularly!

In a month or so, the temperature will rise to 20 or 30 degrees, which will be the peak period for eagles to shed their feathers.

As the saying goes, the eagle will be stripped of its feathers in September, and by September, the eagle will have a beautiful coat of tattered feathers! “

“The big and small food is stretched a little? What’s the principle behind this? Caging a hawk is not the same as releasing it. Do you need to stretch the big and small food to make it angry?”

After listening to Yue Feng’s reminder, Uncle Chen agreed with everything else, but he couldn’t understand why he was stretching his food. (End of this chapter)