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[doctoxic]

Hi

I have set up a pen/pasture with 4 chickens and a rooster togethjer with some nest boxes.  Inside (overlapping) the pen i have a food stockpile just for eggs which are being collected and put into barrells.

To get new chickens do i need to turn off eggs from any food stockpile so they are not collected at all or do you always get some chicks if you have nest boxes?   If i do turn all egg stockpiles off do all the eggs turn to chicks (or what proportion) and do you get wasteage?

Also, does the overlapping food stockpile negate the pen zone (thus making it smaller which could lead, i gather, to overcrowding)

I suppose the overall questions how best (and what size) to grow a chicken farm.

many thanks

doc

[0cu]

Place nest boxes in a room and pasture hens and roosters in that room. Place a door in front of the room and close it. Otherwise, place the cursor with (t) over one of the nest boxes, and if there are any eggs in the nest box, forbid them with (f). It will show {hen eggs [3]} or something like that.

Basically, your dwarves shouldn't be allowed to collect the eggs. So, remove that stockpile also.

[AutomataKittay]

I prefer to have a pasture of nest boxes behind doors, assign all the hens to it and lock the door if you want hatching so dwarves can't path to it, unlock it when you want eggs or to put the poults into cages.

It's pretty simple to set up and relatively trouble-free, however if you're running a open pasture, you'll have to disable the egg part of stockpile and disallow cooking of it.

Also, remember that if animal population for specific critter goes above 50, new babies can't be born! Best way to get a lot of animals is to have 48 females and 1 male, unless it's grazers, you'd be better off having replacemental fertility then.

[doctoxic]

thanks for the replys - a couple more questions

1) can i 'forbid' on an empty nest box for it to work or does there have to be eggs in there?

2) i assume poults are the chicks?  why do i want to put them in cages?


cheers

doc

[AutomataKittay]

thanks for the replys - a couple more questions

1) can i 'forbid' on an empty nest box for it to work or does there have to be eggs in there?

You'd have to forbid the eggs for it to work. Which's why I used locked door method, so dwarves can't get in, at all!

2) i assume poults are the chicks?  why do i want to put them in cages?

Yes, they are, might've been thinking of other birds, since I can't remember which is which ( I tend to use turkey and peafowls ). You want to keep the baby birdies in cages so they don't runs everywhere, and it helps keep things neat and don't hits FPS as bad.

However if you don't want to, you'd need more room so they won't fight, so it's up to you how you'd like it.

[doctoxic]

right - the little buggers don't seem to be laying - though not sure how long it takes so maybe its between cycles but ti seems to have been quite a while

i've now locked them in the pen and removes the egg stockpile

do i need provided them with food of some sort?

if i 'k' over the nestboxes it says they are all unclaimed - is that normal? do i have to allocate chickens to boxes and if so how?

thanks

doc

[0cu]

They don't need to be pastured over grass or moss, because they don't have the [GRAZER] tag. You can leave them alone, they won't starve.

If they are going to lay eggs, they will claim these nestboxes themselves and sit on them to hatch their eggs. If the door's locked so nobody can collect these, chickens will be born someday. Be patient.

[AutomataKittay]

right - the little buggers don't seem to be laying - though not sure how long it takes so maybe its between cycles but ti seems to have been quite a while

i've now locked them in the pen and removes the egg stockpile

do i need provided them with food of some sort?

if i 'k' over the nestboxes it says they are all unclaimed - is that normal? do i have to allocate chickens to boxes and if so how?

thanks

doc

That's normal, they only lay once a season ( or a month, I can't recall properly ) so it can take a bit for them to decide they want to lay. And no you don't need food.

Let them be for a season or so and see if they lays. If they does, let them be for a year or so and they'll hatch, as long as the mother don't get bumped off the nest.