Thinking of everyone’s expectant gazes, Eric felt a little distressed.
"Raise white rabbits?" Max frowned: "Their meat is tough and not as tasty as gray rabbits. If you want to eat, I’ll go catch some gray rabbits for you."
Eric didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: "It’s not just for eating. Raising them is like farming; it’s for the long-term development of the tribe. Besides, rabbits breed a lot. Don’t be fooled by their small size; one litter is at least a dozen.
Under conditions with no natural predators, if we feed them well and all the kits survive, the tribe’s meat source will gradually no longer have to depend entirely on hunting."
The reason the Snow Wolves easily lacked food in winter was that their method of finding food was too simple. Relying on force alone was not enough. Not to mention, every one of them was a bottomless pit.
Luckily, there were countless magical beasts here, and every one of them was huge, but life was still not easy when winter came.
Fresh meat is hard to preserve, but if they could raise livestock, it would be a completely different story. They could slaughter one whenever they needed to eat - fresh and convenient - and they would continuously reproduce, creating a sustainable supply.
Eric had collected quite a few alfalfa seeds during the trip to the Red Grass tribe. Next year, he would plant them all. Not only could they be food for rabbits, but later when the dairy cattle arrived, they could also be used to feed the cows.
Alfalfa is extremely nutritious, making it the most suitable feed for livestock.
Max remembered Eric had talked about animal husbandry before, he just hadn’t expected him to choose white rabbits, an animal that was quite useless in the eyes of the Snow Wolves.
"Alright, then I’ll catch more live ones for you." Although still a bit confused, Max agreed with Eric’s idea.
Eric scratched his chin, pondering: "I wonder if gray rabbits can be raised. We can set up two cages then to test it out. Gray rabbits know magic; I’m afraid raising many will cause trouble, but their meat is indeed very tender."
With that, his gaze swept over the wild duck and wild chicken nearby: "Max, when you all have time, can you help me catch a few live wild chickens and ducks? I want to try raising these two types as well. They don’t just provide meat; if raised well, they can also lay eggs every day."
As for the problem of them flying, his ancestors in his old world had solved that long ago. Just clip half of their wing feathers periodically, and they wouldn’t be able to fly high.
Michael and Nano also came closer, their eyes lighting up: "Raise wild chickens and ducks? That’s great! If we can really raise them, won’t we have endless chicken feet to eat in the future?"
Although nothing was settled yet, Eric was already immersed in the joy of the harvest: "That’s right!"
He became enthusiastic, his eyes shining brightly: "Then we’ll have braised duck necks, duck feet, duck heads, crispy roast duck, honey-grilled chicken, and chicken and duck eggs too! Oh, just thinking about it makes my mouth water, it’s countless!"
"So what do they eat?" Michael pointed out the key problem: "Do we have enough food to feed them?"
Eric thought for a moment: "Rabbits, wild ducks, and wild chickens are all herbivores. When the weather warms up, their food will be more plentiful. They also eat grains, so animal husbandry is best carried out in parallel with farming."
Relying only on his nature magic, even with Evan included, growing grass for them to eat would definitely not be enough to supply them.
Finally, Eric concluded: "Let’s just raise this white rabbit first! We’ll wait until next year when it’s warmer to catch the others!"
"Didn’t you want to make a cage? How big does it need to be, I’ll make it for you." Max took the sharp quills from Eric’s hand.
Eric looked at the injured white rabbit: "There’s no rush. There’s only this one, and it was badly injured falling into the trap, so it won’t be running off anywhere for a while. Making the cage also requires steel wire to fix these quills. I’ll ask Luban for some before we make it."
Max nodded, his hands still working nonstop. After cutting the porcupine meat into bone-in chunks and slabs of meat, he also processed the few rabbits that had fallen to their deaths, which Sam hadn’t gotten to.
Although the white rabbit fur didn’t contain magical power like beast hides, it was pure white and extraordinarily soft. Eric quite liked it. A rabbit pelt this big and beautiful would have had loads of people fighting to buy it for making clothes in his previous life.
Just then, Eric suddenly thought of a problem he hadn’t had time to consider: improving the clothing of the Snow Wolves.
The four basic elements of survival are food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Eric had tried his best to improve the food and shelter situation. As for transportation, the Snow Wolves ran faster than cars; he didn’t need to worry about it.
Now, only the "clothing" issue remained. Although he was gay, he essentially still had the mindset of a straight man, so this aspect was relatively overlooked.
He should have thought about this before winter, but he was incredibly busy back then, rushing to build the house, stockpiling food, coal, and firewood, and also squeezing in time to make pottery molds with Max and the others.
Now that winter was halfway through, the Dwarf women skilled in sewing and the Snow Wolf women were all free. Eric planned to draw some designs for practical clothing for them to look at and follow.
He believed the potential of the races here was immeasurable. Just look at how they learned to knit sweaters; in less than a month, they could already make shirts, pants, and gloves. As long as he provided the designs, they could definitely make them.
In his previous life, Eric didn’t pay much attention to his appearance; his life of toiling like a beast left no time for grooming. But he still remembered the styles of comfortable, everyday clothes, and that was exactly what the Snow Wolf tribe needed most.
He also remembered the beautiful dresses and suits from movies. These things would definitely have a market in the human world, but in the beastman world, they were probably not very practical.
Just try to imagine: a beautiful female beastman, wearing a fiery red evening gown or a captivating sapphire-blue mermaid dress, but her bare shoulders revealing bulging muscles.
She strides with the walk of a queen, then casually throws a punch that sends a wild boar to its ancestors...
That scene truly had too much of a visual impact.
But just in case, Eric still planned to draw them. If anyone liked them then, they could just wear them.
Especially underwear and underpants, they absolutely had to be made!
He secretly made up his mind. Living in a world where everyone went "commando" prancing around in beast-skin skirts, he truly felt that sooner or later his eyes would get a stye from the awkward sights...
Fortunately, he and Corbin had traded for a lot of cotton cloth, and later received Hugh’s return gift. It would definitely be enough to make underwear for the whole tribe.
Footwear also needed improvement. The shoes here were too crude, just a piece of beast skin sewn together and wrapped around the foot. If it weren’t for the beastmen’s thick skin and tough flesh, their soles would probably be unbearably chafed.
The Dwarves dressed much better than the beastmen. At least their clothes were divided into inner shirts and outer coats, and even had details showing personal preferences. Their shoes had soles; although a bit hard, they were definitely better than the beastmen’s.
Meanwhile, if the Snow Wolves didn’t rely on their tall stature and God-given good looks to carry the burden, with their crudely sewn beast-skin clothes and rudimentary boots, they looked just like a poor nomadic tribe.
He recalled the Black Wolf tribe he met at the Red Grass tribe. The people were very detestable, but the clothes they wore were indeed very beautiful.
Although the tribesmen all criticized them for being too flashy and not like beastmen, Eric had to admit that their image management was quite good.