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[TropTropWarrior]

So in a fortress I started a little while ago, I have many fishermen catching many turtles. This brings in a ton of food for my dwarves, but the turtles are not able to be made into meals in their raw, unprocessed form. So I set up a fishery where I have a dwarf cleaning turtles nonstop. It works fine, and brings more meals to my dwarves...

But... now I have way too many turtle shells!! They filled up my refuse pile really quickly. I have expanded it twice so far, but the shells are just way too numerous. Now I'm worried that dwarves won't be able to dispose of refuse, and a miasma will break out. So, what can I do? Is this just a particularly broken part of the game?

I am fairly new to this game, and nowhere near expert level. If there is an obvious solution, I have yet to learn it. Any help is appreciated.

[heritage727]

I usually make shell crafts from them to use as trade goods. They're not high value, but it gets them out of your fortress. You can also decorate things with them and make shell armor, though I think you'd have to be pretty desperate to do that.

[Pearofclubs]

As heritage up there said, you can make shell crafts out of them with a Bonecarving dwarf at a Craftsdwarf's shop. Then you can trade 'em to merchants, effectively removing garbage from your fort, and gaining something more useful in exchange.

You can also use them to make primitive armor for your militia. Not very GOOD armor, but it beats clothing.
Plus, the idea of a bunch of short, hairy, screaming lunatics charging over a hill, half naked, covered in shells, blood and vomit is something that I just find too amusing.
I frequently shelve practicality just to have that scenario play out

[Rogue Yun]

You can use custom refuse stockpiles. One for rotting refuse and one for craftable refuse (bone, shell, hair, horns, hooves, teeth, etc.)
The key commands are p-t for custom stockpile.

One stockpile should look like this, the other have the reverse.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can build a craftsdwarf's workshop b-w-r (I think), assign a bone carver, and set your shell crafts to repeat.

[Alfrodo]

Once you've set up your stockpiles to not accept turtle shells, that's the opposite of a problem.

[Rogue Yun]

You can also use quantum stockpiles too... here is a post I made about quantum refuse stockpiles...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Minecarts are EXTREMELY handy for dealing with corpses and refuse. There are a dozen ways to do this... this is just one messy way that I would mishandle it.

Code: [Select]

"=" = Small refuse/corpse stockpile
"#" = Wall
"X" = Destination whether it be a pit, volcano, magma, quantum stockpile, you name it.
"S" = Minecart Stop + Minecart
"." = Empty tile
"H" = Maintenance hatch (for pit access if necissary) Make sure to lock it.

#####
#X#H#
#S#.###
##====#
##====#
#.#####
#.#####
 ^
Just below the killing fields.

To be less exploity, you may use doors and add some track and another track stop. I find diagonal paths/corners block miasma way better than doors do however.

If you used a pit make sure you have a refuse/corpse stockpile at the bottom. It will help with decay and prevent idiots from running down there to get their heard smashed by dead vermin. A note from my experience, corpses and remains seem to deteriorate at a more rapid rate stacked onto each other than they do separate. Someone else might be able to verify this.

After digging our area and building a minercart stop that dumps in the direction we want...

1.) Hit h and place the cursor over the constructed stop.
2.) r-s-v, select a minecart and hit enter twice
3.) hit x three times to clear out the old conditions
4.) place the cursor over the stockpile and hit s.
5.) Hit enter and select the same configuration as the custom corpse/refuse stockpile.
6.) Hit esc three times to get the heck out of there.

And there you go. A fully automated waste removal system.

A working example:
[spoiler]

[/quote][/spoiler]

[Uggh]

As said before, make something useful or decirative with them. But remember ti save some shells, i.e. forbid them, for later. Sooner or later vermin fish will be depleted including turtles and there is always the possibility of a moody dwarf asking fir shells.

[Larix]

There's no need whatsoever to move the shells out of the fishery. They don't degrade by themselves and produce almost no clutter. I had well over a thousand shells in a fishery once and it didn't get to the first level of clutter. Apart from that, yes, use the shells for crafting, although you might want to forbid ten or so, in case you run into a shell-demanding mood at some point.

The game requires a lot less hauling and stockpiling than people tend to think.

[NJW2000]

Decorate shit with them. I think it will remove the item lag, and will slowly boost your fortress value while training shellcrafters, as well as making stuff interesting. Other stuff e.g. crafts creates more junk.

[Arx]

Ah, but crafts can be piled into bins more-or-less indefinitely. I usually just put a craftsdwarf's shop on 'Make shell crafts/R' as soon as I realise I have them piling up. -Turtle shell crafts- have been my primary export more than once.

Or you could do both and decorate your turtle shell crafts with turtle shell.

[Albedo]

Wait - the turtle shells aren't animating and attacking and killing your legendary Craftsdwarfs?  They're just lying there? THIS is your problem?... 

Decorate (stuff) with them.

If(?) you collect goblin trash, by decorating it you make its value part of the fort's produced wealth, turning GCS loin cloths into real value-boosters.

There's no need whatsoever to move the shells out of the fishery. They don't degrade by themselves and produce almost no clutter.
...
The game requires a lot less hauling and stockpiling than people tend to think.

Yeah, "clutter" used to be numerically-based (so that butchering a single sheep created more "clutter" than 3-dozen statues), but now it's based on "weight", meaning that that game is entirely changed.

However, items are given a minimum weight, so that 75 of even the lightest items will still trigger the 1st level of clutter (or should, according to the wiki).

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

[Manzeenan]

I always set a craftsdwarf workshop to decorate with shell on repeat, reduces lag by combining it with another item and a legendary bonecarver will turn your pile of kitchen waste into massive wealth for a fortress

[Dunamisdeos]

Decorate the heck out of everything with shell.

[TropTropWarrior]

Great advice, thanks everyone. I guess I'll just forbid them from my stockpiles and build crafts from them; thats what most people seem to be saying.

[Manzeenan]

Great advice, thanks everyone. I guess I'll just forbid them from my stockpiles and build crafts from them; thats what most people seem to be saying.

decorating is easier to manage  than creating crafts bud