King of the Wilderness

Chapter 411: Chapter 234: Christmas Eve and the Chicken Coop_4

The couple worked in perfect harmony, one holding the panels in place while the other quickly secured them. Soon, the interior of the main house was completely enveloped in a layer of plywood.

Once the main house’s insulation was completed, the sky had reached the ’brightest’ phase of the polar night, casting a faint blue tint over the snow.

They didn’t pause and instead started working on the large south-facing opening of the activity area.

”Double-layered hollow polycarbonate panels, the core of the passive solar house, our future egg supply depends on them.” Lin Yu’an carried several huge semi-transparent panels from the container warehouse.

Installing such large panels requires a high degree of precision. Lin Yu’an first applied a circle of black low-temperature resistant sealant along all the edges where the wooden frame contacts the panels.

Then, together with Aliya, he lifted the first polycarbonate panel, precisely fitting it into the frame, gently pressing it so that the panel’s edges adhered tightly to the sealant.

Then he took the pre-cut wooden strips to cover the edges of the panels and used an electric screwdriver to fix a screw with a waterproof washer every twenty centimeters.

This method of double fixation with ”sealant + internal and external strips” made the whole window extremely solid, the sealing reached its peak.

When the last semi-transparent panel was secured in place, the entire activity area of the chicken coop was completely enclosed. By summer, part of the plywood can be removed and replaced with a wire mesh for ventilation.

Time passed quietly in the focused labor, though it was still the polar night outside, the southern horizon seemed to be tinged with a barely noticeable faint glow.

The weak twilight seeped through the polycarbonate panels, casting soft bright patches inside the chicken coop, instantly filling the space with vitality.

But this was just the ’upper half’ armament of the chicken coop. Lin Yu’an knew well that in such frigid zones, true warmth comes from beneath.

”Alright, Aliya, now, let’s start our biological heating project.”

Then, he scooped out the dry pine shavings accumulated during the wooden house construction from the shed near the wooden house, which was usually used as fuel for the water heating system.

”Deep litter system, this is our electricity-free underfloor heating.”

Together with Aliya, he used shovels to evenly spread pine shavings over the entire floor of the main house of the chicken coop, making it very thick, ultimately forming a 30-centimeter-thick layer of soft shavings.

Lin Yu’an stepped on it, feeling the soft texture underfoot, ”Throughout the winter, we won’t need to clean chicken manure, just periodically spread a new layer of shavings on top.”

He praised Aliya: ”Darling, your plan is truly ingenious. The underlying chicken manure will mix with the shavings, and microorganisms will start to decompose them.”

”This process is like a slow-burning ’compost reactor’, continuously releasing heat.”

”This thick bedding is an insulation layer itself, while the biological heat generated inside will warm the entire chicken coop from below.”

This system turns waste into precious thermal energy, a perfect ecological closed-loop.

After completing the crucial ground project, the final finishing work was truly fun.

Lin Yu’an first went to the outer wall, looking at the square opening Aliya had long reserved according to the blueprint—the external egg collecting port.

Using a few pieces of scrap wood and hinges, he made a quaint little door that could be flipped upward from the outside, matching the external wall style, and fitted it with copper latches.

Then he went back inside and used wooden planks to build several comfortable laying boxes corresponding to the egg collecting port position.

He also used a smooth birch trunk, slantingly fixing it inside the house, creating a perch ramp stretching from the ground to a higher spot.

He patted the fixed perch with satisfaction, straightened up, and looked around the warm and sturdy main house.

Egg collecting port, perch, insulated walls, and deep litter flooring... all physical facilities were in place.

However, he knew that maintaining a high-yielding flock of chickens required more than physical warmth. The egg production rate of the flock during the long polar night would be affected by lighting, so physiological ’light deception’ was equally indispensable.

Whether it’s constant lighting or other internal facilities, both require a stable and reliable energy core. He turned around and walked out of the chicken coop, with Aliya curiously following behind.