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[Argus_Mccray]

So, it's historically been a problem where a siege or titan/forgotten beast attack results in a pile of dead animals that cannot be butchered. I had a completely nasty forgotten beast rampaging in one of the caverns for a few years, racking up about 150 kills, including 4 other forgotten beasts. I'm now stuck with a truly ludicrous number of skeletons that I can't seem to butcher. Is there any way to fix it where they are butcherable? It's annoying to have to haul all this stuff to the magma incinerator I have set up and I'd rather get *something* from it if possible.

[Eldin00]

The bodies of non-sentient creatures which were never part of your fortress should be butcherable either before they rot, or once the flesh rots away to the point where they are just skeletal remains. But if I remember correctly, butchers workshops only create jobs for butcherable corpses which are either within a certain distance of the shop, or in a stockpile.

You might try building a butchers shop down in the middle of all the remains and see if one of your dwarves gets on the job of dismembering skeletons into usable stacks of bones.

[Albedo]

+1.

Sometimes worth it to build a pod of several Butcher's workshops, and let peasants get dabbling/novice skill in Butchery, just to process everything faster, before the corpses rot.

It's also a classic problem to see the butchered product rot in the butcher shop, so get your stockpiles and haulers organized right away. Sim w/ skins to the Tanners, if that's a goal.

[CometStrike]

Sorry for just hooking up in this thread, but I had a similar problem.
I have the corpses (the skeletons, to be more precise) of a Stray Yak Cow and a Wereanteater lying on a corpse+refuse stockpile outside my fortress. Now I wanted to get the bones for some nice trinkets, so I built a butcher right next to the stockpile. However, there was neither an automatic job created (auto-butcher is turned on) and when I manually added the task to butcher dead animal the job was canceled "Needs butcherable unrotten nearby item".
How can I manage to butcher the remains?

[PatrikLundell]

@CometStrike: Short answer: You can't.
Long answer: Bodies of creatures belonging to the fortress can only be butchered through the butcher live animal path (logical that an animal dead through old age cannot be butchered, but not that one killed by an enemy can't). Werebeasts are sentient, and thus the dwarven ethos forbids the slaughtering of those (and dwarves will also get negative thoughts from seeing the body, while a caravan member seeing it will toss the goods hauled and flee, taking the rest of the caravan with him).
Natural decay may cause the skeletons to self decay into bones, although I don't think so, and if it does, it takes a long time. Body parts of dead creatures (such as arms and legs) can decay into bones over time (faster if on a refuse stockpile). These bones can then be used by your bone carver (yes, even bones of sentients, except dwarves. I've made goblin bone greaves, but the dwarven bones were never processed [the dwarven bones came from undead dwarves, and possibly dwarven necromancer undead handlers]). As far as I understand it, sentient body parts will still produce negative thoughts ( of the type saw a werebumblebee die within the last season), while the bones they eventually decay into will not (I think).

[Albedo]

Used to be that corpses decayed faster if left outside, and also if left out of a stockpile. But that was a few versions ago (and wiki has nothing to say on that matter).

But bones used to rot away over time, and now they don't. (You'd have to put the skulls of enemies in "niches" on your wall to display them as war trophies, with a small roof over them.)

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Corpse

[Argus_Mccray]

Thanks for all the replies! After making sure all the corpses made their way within 47 tiles of the butcher's workshop, the problem has mostly gotten under control. I have enough skulls and bones to bring a smile to Khorne's face. The only issue I have now is mitigating negative thoughts. A couple of questions about how to set up proper corpse disposal:

1) can corpses be loaded into minecarts?

2) does blocking line of sight with a corpse prevent it from causing negative thoughts, or is it only determined by proximity alone?

3) do processed bones cause negative thoughts?

[Eldin00]

Thanks for all the replies! After making sure all the corpses made their way within 47 tiles of the butcher's workshop, the problem has mostly gotten under control. I have enough skulls and bones to bring a smile to Khorne's face. The only issue I have now is mitigating negative thoughts. A couple of questions about how to set up proper corpse disposal:

1) can corpses be loaded into minecarts?

2) does blocking line of sight with a corpse prevent it from causing negative thoughts, or is it only determined by proximity alone?

3) do processed bones cause negative thoughts?

1- I'm pretty sure they can.
2- Blocking line of sight is enough.
3- I haven't tested it, but I'm pretty sure they don't. I know that finished goods of bone don't. Also, only the remains of sentient creatures generally cause negative thoughts, and it's harder to get processed bones from those anyway.

[PatrikLundell]

1. Yes. You can have corpses in a QS, which answers the question.
3. I've produced goblin bone greaves, and I don't think any negative thoughts were produced by those. If fact, I think bones no longer produce negative thoughts, being too far removed from the individuals they once were. This means you should be able to sprinkle your front yard with goblin bones without scaring caravans away or creating bad thoughts. Haven't tried it though. Sentient Bone & Skull stockpiles along the paths leading to the fortress... That would be something for the more blood thirsty forum attenders to try.