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[StubbornAlcoholic]

My current fortress just hit 218 Dwarves. Isn't 200 the standard pop cap? Fingers crossed I now only have to worry about kids appearing everywhere as opposed to those damn migrant waves (already about half my population seems to be Dwarf children! )

My fort sort of went through a golden age where the Hunters were bringing in lots of meat, booze stocks were full and life was good. Unfortunately two stills and three farm plots are no longer keeping up with the necessary production, so I've expanded to hopefully keep the drink flowing.

Meat stocks are getting really low (down from 300 to around 10 now) and I'm not sure what I can do. They've been dwindling ever since I started trapping the surface to protect myself from sieges. Now the creatures in the local jungle seem to constantly be "Men" or "Women" of some beastly kind, and the game apparently considers them sentient since it won't let me butcher them.

Quite frustrating, since I just had about 20 or so Wolverine Men/Grasshopper Men etc. all caught in my cages, but the only thing they were fit for was throwing into the spike pit. Their spawning is stopping creatures like Giant Keas and the like that I was previously butchering. Is there anything I can do about that, or am I now doomed to starvation via near harmless surface creatures? :\

[AutomataKittay]

When liasion comes, they'll report the population back and tell mountainhome to stop sending a tidal wave over when they gets out.

Farming should be able to provide for your food and booze needs, presuming you have 1 farm tile for every 3 dwarves and roughly one farmer for every five tiles, if you're planting plump helmets. That assumes legendary farmers, though! Quarry bush is the best planted food source, pigtail and plump helmet are best drink source for rapid growth, and plump helmet grows quickly enough to be nearly competitive with quarry bush for food.

Keep killing all of the animalpeople and expand your farms, or animal husbandery if you have any ( Bird eggs are good for that, at least ).

[greycat]

or animal husbandery if you have any ( Bird eggs are good for that, at least ).

If you want a sustainable diet including meat, raising your own animals is highly recommended.  Pigs and dogs are great choices because they don't need to graze.  Cats tend to be too scrawny, and don't always give meat.  (They're actually not fully grown until a year after they change from kittens to cats, but there's no way to tell which cats are fully grown and which aren't, because the game doesn't show you their ages. Unless you mod them.) Egg-laying birds can also be raised for meat, using nest boxes and not letting your dwarves take the eggs.  Surprisingly, these don't need to graze either (except elk birds).

[StubbornAlcoholic]

or animal husbandery if you have any ( Bird eggs are good for that, at least ).

If you want a sustainable diet including meat, raising your own animals is highly recommended.  Pigs and dogs are great choices because they don't need to graze.  Cats tend to be too scrawny, and don't always give meat.  (They're actually not fully grown until a year after they change from kittens to cats, but there's no way to tell which cats are fully grown and which aren't, because the game doesn't show you their ages. Unless you mod them.) Egg-laying birds can also be raised for meat, using nest boxes and not letting your dwarves take the eggs.  Surprisingly, these don't need to graze either (except elk birds).

Ah! This explains something, thank you. I've been trying to raise Giant Keas both for meat and as a form of protection (I hear they can be quite vicious in a fight?). I've caught and tamed a male and a couple of females, but the damn things aren't breeding, so they've been useless so far. I guess I need egg boxes for them to lay in?

Do egg boxes need to be near the amorous birds or do they just appear via spores as with generic mammals? I shall perhaps look towards breeding them for food.

[AutomataKittay]

The females need to be able to sit on their nestboxes, if they get bumped off even for a moment, the eggs loses their fertility. Same as when dwarves nabs one off.

Male can be anywhere you want to be, though keep one hidden away if you're using them to guard, wouldn't want to lose all of your studs

[Dunamisdeos]

I have fed a fort of 500 dwarves with a massive surplus on 2 fullsize farmplots.

[Cool Guy]

I always farm turkeys, they have the larges clutch size of all the poultry in game and they are also the largest so they give more meat. Pigs are also one of my choices since they don't need to graze and are relatively large. Cows if you can get a pair, but not something to waste embark points on or anything, you might trade for them but in my experience migrants come with them pretty commonly. Bunnies work pretty well but they need to graze.

Have a lot of farmers/farms. As someone above me said, quarry bushes are best for food, and plump helmets for drink, Although they get close to quarry bushes in food as well. Try to have some farms off to the side though for other distillable items so the little alcoholics can get some variety every once in a while or they'll get bad thoughts., doesn't have to be too often just every once in while.

I have some more farming stuff I do but they're mostly for fun with me, I get a kick out of RPing as a farmer so I have a bunch of animals I spend more embark points then I should on, if you want more farming ideas pm me.

Sources: farming being my main food staple in my fortresses

[SauliusTheBlack]

4 4*4 farms and a whole lot of turkeys, though they should be fully grown when slaughtering(or they don't give anything but bones :-()

[proxn_punkd]

I have never had problems with a lack of food, usually the opposite; I can't get rid of the stuff fast enough!

Though this might be because I tend to insist on colonizing areas rich in wildlife, modding a generous variety of edible plant life, and setting cage traps everywhere.