Construction Method for a Multi-Layer Three-Dimensional Underground Snake House
The multi-layer three-dimensional underground snake house can be used year-round. Ordinarily it serves as a habitat for snakes, and in winter it can also become an ideal hibernation site for snakes. When this snake house is used in the provinces (regions) south of the Yangtze River, its underground coolness is especially evident in the hotter summer weather. It can also be built in a semi-underground, semi-above-ground mode according to the depth of the water table in different regions, to solve the problem in the south, where water resources are abundant and the water table is shallow, that deep digging easily reaches water. In the north, where winter is especially cold, in this season it is only necessary to increase the thickness of the soil layer on top of the snake house to ensure it is below the local frost line, plug the snakes' entry and exit passages and ventilation openings firmly with cotton wadding or waste newspaper, cover the human entrance and exit and cover it with plastic film, then conceal it with shallow soil, so that all kinds of mixed@#@246@#@ species in the underground snake house can safely pass through a hibernation period lasting as long as 4 to 6 months.
The successful application of this snake house not only expanded the original breeding area, but also expanded the snake-holding capacity. The area that formerly stored one portion of snakes has now become more than ten times as large, and the holding capacity is very considerable. The rearing environment for snakes has also improved greatly, making the ecological environment of the snake farm closer to nature and turning it into a near-natural, imitation-ecological snake farm, which is more conducive to the healthy growth of snakes and to the length of time they can be kept.
The successful design of this snake house changed the previous shortcoming that live snakes could not be taken to market@#@136@#@ in the two seasons of early spring and deep winter, turning it into the advantage that one can enter the underground snake house at any time to take live snakes to supply the market. This is because snake prices are highest at these times, about 3 to 5 times the usual snake price. Even if only three or five live snakes are to be caught, one can very conveniently enter the underground snake house to catch them, so as to meet the needs of different customers, truly letting snake farms (households) taste the sweetness of "having what others do not have, and having better what others do have," and strengthening their confidence in large-scale snake farming.
This snake house can provide different temperature and humidity spaces for the mixed rearing of different species of non-venomous snakes (except the king rat snake), enabling the snakes being kept to freely choose the dwelling level suitable for them, thereby reducing the capital investment in repeatedly building snake farms and snake nests. This snake house also has the characteristic of being "warm in winter and cool in summer," and can also be applied to the hot and rainy southern regions, one might say serving as an artificial "summer resort" for southern snakes. It further provides effective use of space for the alternating use of diurnal snakes and nocturnal snakes, making the underground snake house seem more spacious and preventing the phenomenon of crowding inside the nests caused by too many snakes.
When building this snake house, because the slope relative to the ground-level snake area was intentionally increased, and because each snake exit has half a vertical brick as support and is covered well with linked tiles, sudden attacks by fierce wind and rain on the snake cave openings are effectively prevented, and there is no need in severe conditions to trouble the keepers to enter the snake area to handle emergencies. In addition, the top surface of the underground snake house is made of piled soil; besides playing a role in temperature control and moisture retention, flowers and plants can also be planted on it, which is beneficial to the environmental greening and ecology of the snake area and further provides the snakes with a certain amount of activity space.
The greatest advantage of this underground snake house is that in winter, without entering the snake house, one can measure the temperature and humidity inside. Tie a hygrometer to a thin iron wire or nylon rope about 1.5 to 3 m long, lower the hygrometer through the ventilation opening of the snake house, and one can know the temperature and humidity below very accurately. Naturally, this saves a great deal of trouble.
Whether artificial snake farming can design and build a wild-like snake nest suited to snakes is a key technology in snake farming, and it is also one of the important guarantees for success in snake farming. This snake nest precisely solves the problem that snakes cannot live without a snake nest throughout their lives. Snake farmers all know that after a full meal, a snake is sure to crawl into its nest and lie still for several days, and only after the food in its belly has been fully digested does it crawl out of the snake nest to seek food again; at other times (such as high temperatures, rainy weather, fierce wind, and so on, except for snakes with such habits) or when there are other factors that the snake's body instinctively feels unsuitable, snakes will all crawl out of their nests. From this we can calculate that even in the peak activity season for snakes, the time they spend in the nest is still as high as about 2/3. Therefore, whether the snake nest is built reasonably and practically remains the key to success or failure in snake farming.