novelEgg Incubator
| ← Ch.216 | Ch.218 → |
Chen Fan did not know whether male eagles would participate in hatching. What he did know was that if baby eagles really hatched from these four tire-sized eggs, it would be incredibly cool.
Its parent had a wingspan of 80 meters! After the baby eagle was hatched, its wingspan would be at least two to three meters long. After it grew to three months old and learned how to fly, sitting on its back and soaring in the sky would be...
Cool! Absolutely cool. A wingspan of 80 meters and a body length of 10 meters. Even if F-22 Raptor fighter jet pilots see it, they will also be drooling!
Gulp! Gulp! While Chen Fan was absorbed in his own fantasy, the white python actually took two of the eggs and swallowed them down without even biting.
There were two more left. The python howled a few times, reminding the electric eel to quickly eat the eggs and run, before the golden eagle could return and assault them.
The electric eel opened its mouth and held the larger of the two eggs in it, planning to leave the last one for the golden eagle.
Roar! The white python shouted repeatedly but seeing no response from the electric eel, it opened its mouth and swallowed the last egg. Chen Fan was stunned, not knowing what to do. Cold-blooded animals were indeed cold blooded!
After devouring three eagle eggs, the python cheered delightedly and immediately started to turn and run.
"Let's run!" the electric eel exclaimed in a fuzzy voice and hurriedly used its four paws to escape.
The scene of the two huge monsters moving on the land was too devastating to describe in words. A huge wild boar nearly three meters in length was hit by the python's tail and smashed into a nearby tree before it could even escape from its nest.
They took 13 minutes to reach the eagle's nest, but only seven minutes to go back. The sea finally showed itself in front of them.
Rooaaarrr!
When the python and the electric eel were only 1, 000 meters from the sea, an exasperated howl came from the distant sky. Turning its head, the electric eel saw the golden eagle, which had been circling the peak, dive towards them like a bolt of lightning.
It is common knowledge that eagles have the best vision in the animal kingdom. They can easily detect voles moving in grass patches from 10 kilometers away, or prey over half a meter in size within 36 kilometers.
It is a common saying that the higher one stands, the further one sees. Even short-sighted people can see two monsters almost 100 meters in length, nevermind the eagle.
The electric eel, which already knew the eagle's diving speed, did not dare to hesitate. It immediately turned around and, with its paws facing the sky, the voltage on its body began to rapidly increase.
Obviously, the python also detected the golden eagle. It abruptly stopped from its swift movement and, with its upper body standing up vertically, it opened its mouth to the widest, showing the sharp, white teeth inside.
From the python's posture, it was clear that it had fought with the golden eagle previously as well. It chose to battle instead of running towards the sea just ahead because it knew that the eagle would only need a few seconds to reach them, but they would need at least 20 seconds to run to the sea and hide 20 meters underwater.
The eagle had not arrived, but its momentum already did!
The eagle, which had gone berserk, first dove towards the electric eel. Its two wings covered the sky and the sun, leaving a large patch of shadow on the ground. Its sharp claws flew towards the electric eel's head like the arrows of Hou Yi.
Unfortunately...
No matter how fast it was, it could not be faster than lightning!
Lightning does not move at the speed of light but when it travels through air, its speed can reach 50 to 100 kilometers per second, which is hundreds of times that of sound. While the golden eagle was indeed fast, it had not exceeded the speed of sound.
One was quick like the wind, strong like the thunder and completely unstoppable, while the other was aggressive and invincible!
When the eagle's claws reached within 50 meters of the electric eel, the eel, whose body was already as bright as the sun and had already grilled all the plants below it to ashes, instantly burst out two bolts of lightning, each as thick as a lamppost. Within a hundredth of a second, the lightning bolts exploded on the eagle's claws.
The intense electric arc scorched the scales on the eagle's claws. Its muscles started contracting uncontrollably under the electric current and it could no longer fully extend its claws.
Roar! The golden eagle cried out in misery and quickly flapped its wings trying to fly into the sky again.
However, the python, with its upper body standing, did not plan to let the eagle go. Noticing that the eagle's two most powerful "weapons" had been disarmed, it curved its body and shot itself towards the eagle at an extreme velocity.
The python knew that the electricity from the electric eel was rather intense, so it did not dare to go too close. When its head was still several meters away from the golden eagle, its belly bulged and a dense icy mist gushed out from its mouth, surrounding the eagle which was attempting to fly upwards.
It sounds complicated but the series of attacks was actually carried out by the three within a second.
One was extremely hot and the other extremely cold. How would the eagle feel when it was hit?
True, it had hard and warm feathers. But this was still insufficient to handle the low temperature. Its wings, which had still been flapping, suddenly turned stiff, as if Medusa had cast her petrifying magic on them.
The golden eagle flew out a long distance under its own inertia and eventually crashed onto the ground, stirring up a large amount of dust and causing nearby animals to anxiously escape.
That was the power of cooperation. The electric eel first disabled the python's most powerful claws and the python followed up by using its frosty breath, causing the eagle to freeze and lose the ability to fly.
The fallen eagle was just like a sea dragon thrown ashore. The python speedily moved in front of it and opened its mouth again, sending out another wave of cold mist.
Tweet! The golden eagle opened its beak and made a sharp cry. It then flapped its numb wings and dodged aside, away from most of the cold mist.
Missing its first hit, the python's head made a sharp curve in the air, planning to bite the eagle's wings from the side.
This time, the eagle was not that lucky and its left wing was bitten firmly by the python. Failing its attempt to shake the python off, it closed its metallic-looking beak and pecked towards the python's head.
How powerful is an eagle's peck?
If the peck did hit, it would leave a water tank-sized hole in the python's head.
Loosening its bite, the python retracted its head to dodge the fatal blow. Meanwhile, it used its train-like tail to whip the eagle, landing the strike on its right wing like a siege engine.
Bang! It was as if a bomb exploded and the eagle was shoved back over 10 meters. On the other hand, the python got rid of the feathers in its mouth and, with its belly bulging, it was ready to spray another wave of cold mist.
However, before it could spit the mist, it swallowed back again. That was because the golden eagle was rolling from the hills towards the sea.
The previous strike from the python shoved the eagle near the hillside. However, the python was not planning to let the eagle off. After a second of doubt, it whizzed towards the hillside.
It is widely known that snakes and eagles are natural enemies. If they fight, they will definitely attempt to kill each other. Chen Fan had finally experienced the hatred of the python towards the golden eagle. It not only ate the eagle's children, but also wanted to kill the eagle.
He decided not to go forth and help. Because the electric arcs were indiscriminate, if the electric eel was to attack the eagle, it might also injure the python.
Howl! The golden eagle, which was already at the foot of the mountain, continued to make miserable and sharp bellows. Its eyes were locked onto the aggressive python with immense hatred, and it then started flapping its wings, trying to fly off.
It already could not open its claws due to the electric arcs. Furthermore, its only other attack, pecking, could be easily dodged. Apart from escaping, it did not have a second choice.
The python, which had already dashed down the hill, spit a few more mouthfuls of cold mist at the golden eagle, now already tens of meters above the ground. Next, its upper body stood up and it began roaring at the eagle continuously.
After reaching a few hundred meters above ground, the golden eagle also started circling above the python, making a series of howls that spread throughout the sky.
"Stop that. He's not going to come down!" The electric eel moved in front of the python in a swaying fashion and used its claw to pat the head of the stubborn python.
In the beginning, it refused to leave. After a while, maybe it was too tired to continue howling. It glanced at the eagle reluctantly and dove into the vast sea.
The gain this time was truly huge: one golden eagle egg. If it could be successfully hatched, riding on the eagle and soaring above the sea would be...
Unfortunately, the golden eagle had too few means of attack. If if failed to grab the enemy on its way down, it could be easily taken down.
With the trophy in its mouth, the electric eel passed the bizarre ripples and returned to the cave. After using some electric arcs to chase the clingy python away, it climbed up the cliff.
As the eel gently and lightly spit out the tire-sized egg, Chen Fan quickly ran out from the stone tower and brought it to the second floor. He then used a towel to dry the surface of the egg and placed it on the bed.
Of course, his intelligence was not so degenerated that he thought wrapping the egg with a blanket would hatch it. Actually, he had done something similar in the past when he had picked up a nest of wild eggs, successfully turning the wild eggs into rotten eggs.
With the advanced technology available, he only needed to purchase a fully automated egg incubator which would allow him to adjust the temperature and level of moisture anytime.
Under normal circumstances, in a well-ventilated place at room temperature, these kind of eggs can be stored for a week. Thus, Chen Fan had plenty of time to prepare for artificial hatching.
Putting on his calfskin wide-brim hat from the clothes stand and taking 100, 000 yuan from the drawer to put into his wallet, Chen Fan sat in the diving chamber and allowed the electric eel to drag him to Wuhua County about 50 kilometers away.
On the way, he opened the chamber door twice to allow ventilation. After going ashore, he went into a restaurant to have his meal. When he was full and burping, he started asking the restaurant owner for a place which would sell egg incubators.
"Maybe you can try the Red Star Agricultural Machinery Market? The stores there sell equipment relating to farming and planting, and should have egg incubators!"
After calling a cab and reaching the market, Chen Fan only strolled for half a block before he managed to find a store which sold farming equipment.
In the large store, there was only a middle-aged man lying on a recliner. He had a cigarette in his mouth and his eyes were partially closed, as if he just woke up. Noticing that there was a customer, he only smiled and nodded, signaling Chen Fan to enter and have a look.
There were small plastic egg incubators which cost a few hundred yuan each, and also larger ones with imported detection and control systems. The latter could hatch 10, 000 to 20, 000 eggs each time and cost tens of thousands of yuan.
Approaching the largest incubator, Chen Fan opened it to take a look. The space inside was very huge, and could allow two people to enter. In addition, the egg racks inside were independent structures just like supermarket shelves and could thus be taken out.
"Hello. Can this be used to hatch eagle eggs?" Chen Fan asked the middle-aged man near the doorway as he knocked on the metallic cover of the incubator.
"Eagle eggs?" The owner extended his pinky finger and scratched his oily, swept back hair."For bird eggs, I only know about peacock, pheasant, turtledove and pigeon eggs. I don't think anyone has artificially hatched any eagle eggs yet. But for poultry and bird eggs, the temperatures needed are quite similar. A difference of about one degree should not matter. There are control buttons there. You can choose the one for turtledove eggs since they are quite similar to eagles."
"Alright!" Chen Fan nodded. He planned to do some online research later. The machine could control its own temperature anyway.
"How much is it? I will take this one!"
The middle-aged man took a drag from his cigarette. His eyes were focused outside the shop. On the road, there was a good-looking girl in a ponytail passing gracefully by. His head turned as the girl passed just like a turning tank turret.
"Hi, how much is this?" Chen Fan said impatiently.
"Ah, ah. Which one?" He quickly turned his head, planning to say the price and then looked at the girl again. But when he saw Chen Fan tapping on the machine that was taller than he was, he climbed up immediately."Thirty two thousand! Thirty two thousand. If you are buying, I will give you a discount of 500 yuan!"
"Help me wrap the machine with plastic and send it to the shore. I will take it on my ship!"
"Alright alright!" The owner deliberately avoided asking him if he had 20, 000 eagle eggs to hatch. He also did not say that the smaller plastic incubator, which only cost 200, was sufficient to hatch over 10 eggs at once. Instead, he ardently explained to Chen Fan about some hatching knowledge and precautions, and eventually gave him a medium-sized fledgling box worth 600 yuan for free.
The breeding of birds is season-dependent. The fledgling box was used to maintain a constant temperature so that the fledgling, which would be artificially fed, would not be affected by seasonal changes.
By the time Chen Fan returned to the cave in Zhongyun, it was already 3pm. He used a powerful flashlight to shine on the eagle egg, and realized that there was already a blurry figure within the egg. The egg was not dead.
Next, he used a marker on the egg shell to indicate the front and back so that he would be able to roll the egg every day more conveniently.
Removing the egg racks, he placed a layer of cotton at the bottom of the machines, after which he filled the water chamber and connected the machine to electricity to preheat the interior. He would be able to place the eagle egg inside after two hours.
Two hours later, the monitor showed that the temperature had reached 38. 5 degrees Celsius. After closing a few websites on animal hobbyists, he carefully put the eagle egg into the incubator.
The incubation temperature for eagle eggs was very similar to that of poultry and turtledove eggs. The required temperature was about 38 to 39 degrees, and the moisture level about 50 to 55.
According to the shape of the embryo, the eagle egg had already been developing for 20 to 30 days. The incubation period for eagles was 45 days, which meant that Chen Fan only needed over 10 days more to hatch the eagle egg.
Of course, all of these were based on assumptions. After all, nobody had seen eagles with a wingspan of 80 meters and a body covered in golden feathers and therefore, no such incubation experiences could be found. Chen Fan could only base everything on the information of a similar rare species, Aquila chrysaetos, more commonly known just as, "golden eagle."
The golden eagle referred to here was nothing like that huge eagle with golden feathers all over its body. Instead, it had black feathers but under sunlight they looked shiny, and hence the name golden eagle. Nevertheless, the two did look similar in their appearance.
| ← Ch. 216 | Ch. 218 → |