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[CriticallyAshamed]

Hey guys, newbie here. I've read the wiki and am having an -alright- time with my first fortress (it's in a stupid place but meh). I'm breeding up chickens for food but none of them seem to be breeding. I have 4 nesting boxes and 3 hens and they just stand around their pen all day. As soon as I built the nests, the chickens swarmed to it and started laying however I wasn't quick enough in forbiding the eggs and I didn't get any chickens from it. Now the eggs are in a barrel. What's going on here?

Apart from this, I've noticed my farmers tend to do a crazy little ritual where they'll plant plump helmets for a bit then decide that they don't need to anymore even though it's a huge field and there's a lot more seeds. I have all the labours enabled but they're just kinda sitting around being lazy?

[Lectorog]

The eggs are being taken and put into food storage (though cannot be eaten raw). If you want to use these eggs for more chickens, lock the birds in a room; this way, the eggs can't be accessed until you want them to and you can keep track of your growing population.
I, personally, just use the eggs produced for food and buy new birds as desired, to add variety. Either way, both the eggs and their makers provide good food.

As for the farms, I've seen the same problems. If the farmers aren't actually doing other jobs at the time, I'd suggest just waiting for them to get around to planting. Make sure they're not doing any jobs, and that the farms are fully accessible.

[Nidokoenig]

If there are no stockpiles which take eggs and they're forbidden from being cooked, the eggs will stay there, but locking them in a room is easier to do.

For planters, I suggest putting a seed stockpile next to the plots. Set this stockpile to take from all other stockpiles that might have seeds. Dwarves can be very picky about using items which aren't in the right stockpiles.

[CriticallyAshamed]

So I take it then that hens don't lay again until the eggs are not within the game world at all? Damn that's irritating. Spose I'll have to feed me dorfs some eggs. Least they'll be buff. Thanks for the help guys.

[Lectorog]

Build some kitchens with (stocked) egg-only stockpiles next to them, somewhat away from the rest of the food. Eggs can't be eaten raw, so kitchens need to cook them into things. The combination with other foods can get annoying, though, which is why I recommend the egg-exclusive cooking area. Be sure to take-from or disable eggs in the main 'pile, to keep the eggpile stocked.

Also, I don't know about eggs used for hatching, but if a hen's eggs are collected for the food stockpile, they continue regularly laying eggs (if that's what you were asking).

[CapnUrist]

Your hens will lay eggs again before too long, whether you use the eggs you've collected or not. In order for the eggs to hatch, the hen must stay on the box and the eggs in that box. It'll take a while for the eggs to hatch, and then about another year for the chicks to mature.

Your farmers are probably busy hauling stuff around. That's probably not that much of a problem; plump helmets grow really fast, so you'll soon find yourself with more than you can deal with.

[Xorn]

I know this may seem a little 'duh' but have you selected every season for planting? You may have just selected one out of the four, meaning they don't plant anything for the rest of the year.
And to get the chicken to be born, put the nest boxes in a room and lock the door. Leave them there for a year and watch the explosion of chicks.

[ral]

Not setting the crop for all seasons was what messed me up when I first started. Hit q, select the plot, and press a b c d and you will see.

Also, you might want to take the farmer dwarf and disable all labors (especially hauling) on him except for the farming. Then go into orders and set them to "only farmers harvest". That way he'll also do all the harvesting, raising his farming skill faster, and will eventually become super speedy at farming. Once he becomes extremely fast at farming, give him more jobs to keep him busy.

[MonkeyHead]

RE: Farmers being smart... IIRC, if there is insufficient growing time left in a season, farmers will not plant seeds for the current season and instead wait for the next one, which akes more sense if you have crop rotations instead of mushrooms all year round.

[JmzLost]

Another key to getting eggs to hatch is having a male of the species.  Hens can sit on eggs in a nest box forever, but if there isn't a rooster on the map the eggs will never hatch.

JMZ

[CriticallyAshamed]

I've got a rooster, he's penned up with the hens. However it's been quite a few weeks since they last laid... Is there a certain time period I have to wait for new eggs? In case it matters they are outside in a freezing biome which mightn't be good for them.

[knaveofstaves]

RE: Farmers being smart... IIRC, if there is insufficient growing time left in a season, farmers will not plant seeds for the current season and instead wait for the next one, which akes more sense if you have crop rotations instead of mushrooms all year round.

Yeah, and I've had crops entirely *disappear in the ground* if they don't grow and get picked before their growing season is up. Dunno if that bug is still around, I've set a farming schedule to avoid it regardless:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

spr: SWEET PODS and quarry bushes
sum: CAVE WHEAT, PIG TAILS and quarry bushes
atm: plump helmet and dimple cup
win: plump helmet and dimple cup

pt and ph grow in ~25 days
sp qb cw and dc grow in ~42 days