Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Melzer]

How do you incubate little birds? My dwarf seen to go to the nest box and take egg but the eggs aren't listed on [K] look around menu. Help

[Manveru Taurënér]

Block off the room your birds and nest boxes are in (forbidden door for example) so the dwarves can't collect the eggs, then just wait for them to hatch ^^

[Yaotzin]

Just don't have a stockpile that accepts the type of egg you want hatched, then the dwarves will leave them alone.

[martinuzz]

And also forbid said eggs to be used for cooking, or your cooks will still grab them from the nestboxes if there's no ingrediënts available closer to the kitchen.

[FuzzyZergling]

You can use the [t] screen to look inside the boxes and forbid the eggs.

[Kibstable]

I usually lock 1 hen and 1 rooster in a small cupboard with 1 nestbox, just off the main nestbox room, so when the chicks hatch the door is unlocked and they are pastured next door. It means I can avoid all my egg clutches turning into eggsplosion.

[nightwhips]

I build nestboxes behind a door, and then make the door forbidden but pet passable. Then the chickens/geese/gators/whathaveyou can enter, lay and incubate when they need to, but the dwarves won't access the box. This way the poults can also leave the room (if you care). Once I've got enough layers I build a few boxes that aren't behind the door, and we have egg roasts, while still having chick production from the forbidden coop.

[Sphalerite]

My usual, overkill-micromanagement scheme is to dig a large number of single-tile rooms, each with a door, off a main central corridor.  Each room gets a nest box.  Each nest box has a 1x1 pasture set on it.  Each egg-laying female bird is assigned to their own pasture on a nest box.  Males are pastured in a small room elsewhere.  Females lay eggs, which are then promptly harvested by dwarves.  When I need more birds, I lock the doors.  When I get the notice that chicks have hatched, I have to immediately pause the game, unlock the door, and then assign the chicks to a cage before they peck the mother to death.  Chicks stay in a cage till they are old enough to be butchered.  Periodically I butcher the egg-laying hens and replace them with newly matured chicks.

This process yields far more food than my dwarves know what to do with.

[Drawde]

How do you deal with the unfertile egg bug?  After one or two clutches, the next clutch never hatches.  That's why I've given up on egg layers.

And It's not because of too many of the animal on the map.

[Sphalerite]

How do you deal with the unfertile egg bug?  After one or two clutches, the next clutch never hatches.  That's why I've given up on egg layers.

I have not seen this happen.  I do see clutches of eggs sometimes never hatch, but it's rare.  If a particular clutch goes without hatching for a while, I unlock the door to allow it to be harvested.  The next clutch is usually fine.

I do periodically butcher the laying hens and replace them with newly matured hens from a previous batch of chicks, so maybe that's what does it.

[Drawde]

I see it happen EVERY time I use egg layers.  I get one or two cluches fine, then the eggs sit there forever.  Without exception.

I'll have to try the doors thing next time then.

[Sphalerite]

If a clutch is infertile, the hen will sit on it forever until you let your dwarves remove it.  After that, she should be able to lay a new clutch that can be fertile.  Though you also might try butchering and replacing the hen when this happens.

[FuzzyZergling]

I see it happen EVERY time I use egg layers.  I get one or two cluches fine, then the eggs sit there forever.  Without exception.

I'll have to try the doors thing next time then.

Your animals will only give birth (or lay fertile eggs) if there are less than 50 of their species in the fortress. Eggs are laid in large clutches, so it's possible for only a few hatchings to send you over 50.

[Sutremaine]

Do the eggs count towards the cap?

[Old Skool]

How do you tell the difference between "old" chickens and "new" chickens? Or do you just slaughter all adults??