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[veantur]

Hi
im playing df with df gack 0.43.05-r2 and i have the issue that my eggs dont hatch
the hens are sitting on the sitting on the eggs but since  more than one year nothing hatched
Is the any possibility to solve this issue?

[KittyTac]

Hi
im playing df with df gack 0.43.05-r2 and i have the issue that my eggs dont hatch
the hens are sitting on the sitting on the eggs but since  more than one year nothing hatched
Is the any possibility to solve this issue?

You need a rooster to fertilize the eggs.

[PatrikLundell]

The rather terse answer by KittyTac is basically correct. Eggs need to be fertilized to hatch. However, the availability of a male is not a sufficient condition to ensure eggs are fertilized, as egg laying females are more eager to lay the eggs than to get them fertilized, so they frequently lay the eggs before the males have had a chance to perform their duties.

If you're using DFHack (which I assume "df gack" refers to), then you can check if the eggs are fertilized by looking at the eggs inside the nest box. DFHack adds a fertilization indicator to the UI (I assume that can be disabled, but I also assume it's enabled by default: It's been there when I've tried to use it).

[FantasticDorf]

They will also not hatch if the fertilised eggs have died from the egg layer being off the nest box for a extended period of time OR if the nestbox is set to forbidden.

A easier way to ensure that eggs won't be queued to be collected by dwarves (and to clean out eggs that aren't fertilised) is to simply lock the door access to the room they are held in.

Elk-birds for instance underground are grazing animals, so players have difficulty keeping them because they tend to starve unless certain workarounds are put in place

[Fleeting Frames]

Sometimes eggs do hatch if you've gone off and removed/butchered the egglayer. I'm not sure what the distinction is, however, though I've found it present on same embark with same turkeys.

I've never had problems with forbidding eggs, either, though I can't recall for sure on how much I forbid nestboxes alongside.

[FantasticDorf]

Sometimes eggs do hatch if you've gone off and removed/butchered the egglayer. I'm not sure what the distinction is, however, though I've found it present on same embark with same turkeys.

I've never had problems with forbidding eggs, either, though I can't recall for sure on how much I forbid nestboxes alongside.

The growth of the eggs stops to a halt when forbidden indefinitely then continue when the pregnant animal gets back ontop, not sure if the pregnant animal counts post slaughtering or not but there are loose issue reports that the eggs continue for a little while after that happens

[PatrikLundell]

Sometimes eggs do hatch if you've gone off and removed/butchered the egglayer. I'm not sure what the distinction is, however, though I've found it present on same embark with same turkeys.

I've never had problems with forbidding eggs, either, though I can't recall for sure on how much I forbid nestboxes alongside.

The growth of the eggs stops to a halt when forbidden indefinitely then continue when the pregnant animal gets back ontop, not sure if the pregnant animal counts post slaughtering or not but there are loose issue reports that the eggs continue for a little while after that happens

No.
Forbidding eggs causes them not to be collected by dorfs, but that has no effect on the potential mother (who's laid the eggs, and thus cannot be considered "pregnant"). Forbidding the nest box does not block egg collection, and I don't know if the egg laying (animal) females respect forbidding of the boxes.

I've definitely had eggs hatch a fair bit after the potential mother was slaughtered. My fortresses have a lack of dorf power, so I fairly frequently have eggs that go uncollected for quite some time, and thus hatch when they weren't intended to be hatched. In one such case I explicitly slaughtered all adult females (and probably males as well), and still had eggs later afterwards.

[Fleeting Frames]

While not the best term, you can consider the potential mother pregnant both in the sense that she still has the 6-month pregnancy timer ticking after laying the eggs and in the sense that she can lay a second fertile batch of eggs even after not seeing a male of her species for over a season. This somewhat mirrors real-world behaviour where some birds can store sperm in their body for later, though that's typically at most 100 days, depending on species, not 168 days for every species.

[Thorfinn]

My best luck has been digging out an oversized "chicken coop" and pasturing all the poultry together for a week or so before placing any nest boxes. On occasion one or two clutches may not hatch, but I kind of wonder if those were the ones I accidentally (f)orbid the nest, then undid that and (f)orbid the eggs. I don't really know. I just cage all the young 'uns and once I get to 50 just start collecting the eggs.

I've never had good luck with autonestbox. Probably I just don't understand it. Hens and such will go lay eggs when they feel like it, and not a moment earlier, regardless of autonestbox enabled or disabled. (Yeah, I do the 1x1 pasture thing, build the nest box, and assign a few to boxes early on, but I don't think I'm seeing any difference in behavior afterwards.)

[Sanctume]

If I embark to have egg, I take at least 2 turkey gobblers, and minimum 3 turkey hens. 
For a full-time turkey enterprise, I will take 8 turkey hens. 

Phase 1.
Dig 3x3 room, with 1 tile entry. 
Build 1 cage , 8 nest box, 1 door.

Phase 2.
Build cage in middle of 3x3, assign gobblers inside. 
Build door,
Build next boxes around cage, assign pasture zone for turkeys. 

Phase 3.
Watch turkeys claim and lay eggs, upon which q over the nest box, and forbid the eggs. 
Dfhack will indicate fertile or not, but forbid it just the same for now. 

If all 8 hens claim and lay eggs, forbid door. 
Then forbid fertilized eggs, and unforbid non-fertilized. 
Create an egg stockpile so the non-fertilized eggs are collected.

[wuphonsreach]

The keys to autonestbox in dfHack (which work well for me):

- Create 1x1 pasture zones on top of each nest box after it has been placed, use "autonestbox start" to get the female egg layers assigned to boxes.  Or you could assign the initial batch of females yourself (if you want all chickens in room A, all turkeys in room B, etc.).

- Create a second pasture zone that covers all of the nest boxes, but does *not* have a nest box in the upper-left corner.  Assign your males to this pasture zone.  This way they still have access to the females and can fertilize them. 

(Alternately, just let your males run around the fortress without being assigned to a pasture zone.  But that has impacts on your frame rate.)

Even in a 200+ dwarf fortress, you need to really think about limiting the number of egg-layers (maximum of 5 female adults and 3 male adults).  And you can probably buy enough from the dwarven caravan to keep a healthy population and replace deceased birds.

However, in sealed forts, I will periodically (every two years), move all turkeys to a 10x10 room with nest boxes (that are not managed by autonestbox) and then seal them in by locking the doors.  Wait until poults hatch, then remove the pasture zone and re-assign the males as needed (or just cage them if I don't want them breeding further).  The females, thus freed from the pasture zone, will get auto-assigned by autonestbox again within about 10 minutes of real time.