Crazy Thursday

“Raising chickens?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Alicia and Elon felt their minds grind to a halt.

After all, nobody could picture what raising chickens in a desert would look like.

“Are you serious?”

Alicia searched Shane’s pale face for any sign of a joke, but she found none. Shane was dead serious; to him, this wasn’t some far-fetched fantasy.

“Raising chickens in the desert...” Elon couldn’t help but chime in. The old druid clearly had far more experience in these matters than the princess, and he immediately pointed out the potential consequences. “If the flock gets too large, their scratching, pecking, and droppings will actually degrade the topsoil. In severe cases, it could even accelerate desertification. Are you sure you’re not just looking for trouble?”

Shane looked at Elon. Knowing this was a common misconception, he replied dryly, “Of course that would happen if you coop a whole flock up in one place.”

He squatted down, picked up a pebble, and drew a small circle on the ground, placing a dot right in the center. “Chickens aren’t animals that roam over vast distances,” he explained. “Their foraging, roosting, and egg-laying all revolve around a fifty-meter radius from their coop.”

“If you cram dozens or hundreds of chickens into a single circle, you’re practically asking for disaster. The droppings will accumulate, the soil will compact, and the land will be ruined in less than two years.”

“But what if...” Shane drew another circle a short distance away and continued, “...we free-range them in separate groups of twenty?”

Elon paused, staring at the circles Shane had drawn. He simulated the proposed plan in his mind, tilting his head slightly as his tightly furrowed brow relaxed. “That... would indeed be much better.”

As a druid, he naturally understood the benefits of Shane’s theory. “With the droppings scattered over a larger area, they won’t build up in one spot. Furthermore, the chickens’ natural scratching acts as a light tilling of the soil. If we pair this with proper rotational grazing, it could actually help improve the topsoil structure.”

Elon looked up, a hint of admiration in his eyes. “This method of yours... actually solves the problem from its very root.”

Alicia stood by, nodding in agreement. Although she wasn’t as well-versed in farming and animal husbandry as the two experts, she could still follow the basic logic.

However, a question quickly occurred to her. “If the logic holds up, why don’t we raise cattle or sheep? In terms of economic value, they’re worth far more than chickens.”

Shane glanced at her. Knowing that the princess had little exposure to such practical matters, he formulated a brief, clear explanation. “Simply put, there are two reasons.”

“First, cattle and sheep require far too much pasture. With our oasis’s current vegetation cover, we could support maybe eight to ten head at most. Any more, and we’d run out of food.”

“Besides, our primary objective right now is to expand the greenery, not build a ranch. Overgrazing would wipe out the plants we’ve worked so hard to grow, which defeats the purpose.”

“Second...” Shane looked at Elon, curious to see if the old druid could follow his train of thought.

As expected, Elon did not disappoint. The old druid’s expertise shone through once again. “It also comes down to the manure.”

“Cattle and sheep produce a massive volume of waste. In a dry desert environment, it dries out extremely quickly. Once dried, it doesn’t decompose easily. Over time, it forms a hard crust on the surface, which suffocates the soil underneath.”

“Therefore, we would need an external force to decompose it.”

Elon looked at Shane, and the two shared a knowing smile. Shane then supplied the answer: “Dung beetles. If we wanted to introduce cattle and sheep, we’d also have to import dung beetles to help decompose the manure.”

“In contrast, chicken droppings are much smaller in volume. Even without any intervention, the desert sun and wind will quickly break them down into powder, leaving no burden on the environment.”

“So, to bring in chickens, we only need to bring in chickens.”

Silence fell over the group for a few moments after he finished speaking. Alicia stared down at the faint lines drawn in the sand. When she looked up again, her doubts were entirely gone, replaced by a touch of curiosity. “How on earth do you come up with these ideas?”

Shane smiled faintly. This knowledge was the hard-earned wisdom of his predecessors and colleagues from his past life. They had spent years, even decades, slowly figuring it all out in the vast, arid deserts, eventually building a complete system. He was merely a messenger passing it along.

Showing no pride, Shane clapped his hands and looked at the two. “Now that the basic plan is set, let’s get started. I have a few ideas regarding the coops.”

He traced a triangle and a rectangle in the air, offering a brief explanation. “I plan to build two types of chicken coops. The first will be semi-fixed.”

“It’ll have a triangular structure, making it suitable for the construction zone where the wind and sand are strongest. A triangle is highly stable and won’t easily blow over. The downside is that it’s difficult to move, but...”

Shane glanced at the skeletons watering the plants in the distance, a confident expression appearing on his face. “...I can handle the moving part.”

Alicia followed his gaze. Watching the pale skeletal figures, her mouth twitched. “Sometimes, I really feel like these tireless undead, if utilized properly, are far more efficient than actual humans.”

Elon ignored the princess’s remark. He pondered Shane’s proposal and raised his main concern: “What about insulation? The desert gets incredibly hot during the day. The temperature inside the coops will skyrocket.”

“No need to worry about that. That’s actually something we’ll address in the design of the second coop.”

Shane gestured in the air again, outlining a rectangular shape and its internal layout. “I want to design the second coop to be completely mobile. The walls will be insulated with a packed mixture of sand, soil, and wheat straw.”

“The roof will have two layers: the lower layer will be for insulation, and the upper layer will act as a sunshade, woven from Red Willow and Suosuo branches.”

Then, he tilted his arm at roughly a fifteen-degree angle. “The floor will be sloped like this, with the lower end facing outward. We’ll add a barrier at the end of the slope, and on the other side of the barrier, we’ll lay down a cushion of wheat straw or old cloth. When the hens lay eggs, they’ll roll down the slope onto the cushion. That way, we can collect the eggs from the outside.”

“We won’t have to step inside the coop, and we won’t disturb the flock.”

Alicia possessed a good sense of spatial visualization. She understood the structure of the mobile coop from Shane’s simple description alone, and she looked at him with admiration. “I’ve never seen a design like this before.”

“Your Highness simply hasn’t had reason to think about these things. It’s nothing too difficult.”

After offering that minor bit of flattery, Shane frowned as he brought up a critical issue with the mobile coop. “The key is the base.”

“Normally, a mobile coop needs wheels for easy transport. But we have neither ready-made wheels nor any metal parts.”

“How about a sled design? We could grind bones into curved blades for the bottom. Dragging it across the sand wouldn’t take much effort at all.”

Elon immediately offered his suggestion, which pleasantly surprised Shane. He teased, “That’s actually a great idea. You’re quick on your feet.”

“Likewise.”

The two exchanged a glance, both unable to suppress a grin at their mutual flattery.

Watching them, Alicia felt that their coordination was becoming increasingly seamless, as if they were partners who had worked together for years.

“That leaves... the temperature control.”

Steering back to the main topic, this was the most critical aspect. Yet, to Shane, it was still a minor issue. “We can use ectoplasmic crystals. There are plenty in the pool anyway, so crafting a few cooling items won’t be difficult.”

“Since they only need to provide simple cooling, the materials don’t need to be complex.”

With the plan fully established, the three divided the labor. Shane and Elon would build the coops, while the princess would contact Lanche. Some households in the villages along the periphery of the Golden Sea raised chickens, and those birds would undoubtedly be much more heat-resistant than any they could buy from the heart of the Empire.

However, building the coops did not go as smoothly as they had hoped. Shane immediately ran into a thorny problem.