Print

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

[Rafe]

So i placed down some nest boxes and my chickens IMMEDIATELY adopted them and began laying eggs, good. I then wanted to expand the room so i deconstructed the nest boxes from under the laying hens and i moved them. I then placed them 1  by 1 in their new intended positions and i had some chickens fighting with some injuries in red. Beaks and toes. Months passed and no hen adopted a nest box. It's almost as if the nest boxes where tainted after the i engaged in temporary "indian-giving". I even tried to make a new nest box to see if it was some sort of corruption with the old ones but the chikens never adopted teh new one?

Does a chicken only have 1 adoption in it ? I seem to have broken my chickens as they are now induced into behavioral sterility.

[guitarxe]

No, they simply don't lay eggs very often. I remember in a farming-oriented fort I started it seemed like years would go buy without any egg laying (it turned out I wasn't paying much attention and dwarfs were grabbing eggs while I was not watching).
But yeah, it simply takes time (more than a few months), before they decide to lay more eggs.

[i2amroy]

Chickens and other egg layers will only lay a couple of egg batches every year. Just wait and they should claim your new ones eventually.

As for the fighting, domestic animals will begin to lash out at one another if they are crammed into a tiny space. This will tend to happen right after hatching as suddenly 40 chicks appear from all of the eggs if you don't have sufficient room in your nest box areas. I suggest that you just let the chickens roam free and maybe make a little more space between your nest boxes.

[Rafe]

No, they simply don't lay eggs very often. I remember in a farming-oriented fort I started it seemed like years would go buy without any egg laying (it turned out I wasn't paying much attention and dwarfs were grabbing eggs while I was not watching).
But yeah, it simply takes time (more than a few months), before they decide to lay more eggs.

This isn't really the problem, I've had tonsa egg laying. My problem is nest box adoption. Also i've been able to forbid eggs so i can control eggs collection well. I'm more concerned if pulling a nest box from under a chicken changes their behavior to never adopt again.

Anyway i can check the internal contents of nest boxes with T and immediatly detect if they have been adopted with Q so i can determine the moment a box is adopted or the moment eggs are layed.

[i2amroy]

This isn't really the problem, I've had tonsa egg laying. My problem is nest box adoption. Also i've been able to forbid eggs so i can control eggs collection well. I'm more concerned if pulling a nest box from under a chicken changes their behavior to never adopt again.

Anyway i can check the internal contents of nest boxes with T and immediatly detect if they have been adopted with Q so i can determine the moment a box is adopted or the moment eggs are layed.

Chickens and other egg layers will only adopt a nest box for the duration of their egg sitting. As soon as they have their eggs taken out from under them the eggs will never hatch and they will relinquish ownership of the nest boxes until it's time to lay eggs again. So if you moved the boxes then all of your eggs that were laid at the time of the move were collected, and until your chickens lay more they won't claim nest boxes.

[Garath]

put the chicks in cages to stop fighting and lots of running around

[GreatWyrmGold]

Have patience. Time heals all wounds, if decapitation and bisection don't count.

If you go a couple seasons without eggs, try de- and re-constructing the nestboxes. If that doesn't work, try getting some new chickens.

[Rafe]

Yeah i see how the chiken laying works. I managed to get a good buncha eggs, stored some away by forbidding them and let 1 nest box out of 3 hatch. That yielded a tremendous amount of chicks that are now in cages.

1 thing though and i don't know if this is a bug or intentional but i've started to really focuse on negative thoughts and i notice that uncovered food draws flies. Food can be anything from fish or meat to even a plump helmit in a farm plot. However i'm getting alot of flies around my nest boxes adn i wonder if that's because technically the eggs are uncovered food ?

Is this possible ? if so how do you guys deal with this?

Thanks again.

[Garath]

the more people walk in an area, the fewer flies is my experience

[orius]

Egg layers seem to produce 1 clutch per season, and it takes about a full season for a clutch to hatch if you have males where they can spore.  If you pasture a female on a nest box, she also seems to claim it right away and lay a clutch if she hasn't this season, so if you're locking doors to prevent access do it ASAP.

[knutor]

Do you have them penned alone? Or are there tame predators in that cages?  I've noticed they seem more jittery when caged with kittens.