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[DanielLC]

I'm considering building an auto-butchery, so I don't have to butcher an animal every once in a while. Essentially, the idea is to stick all of an animal of a certain type in a room with a pressure plate and a floor hatch. When one animal is on the floor hatch and another walks onto the pressure plate, it drops the first several z-levels onto the floor next to a butcher's shop, tanner's shop, and kitchen. The frequency of animals being butchered should be about proportional to the square of the number of animals, while the frequency of them being born is proportional to the number. Because of this, the population should be stable. Has anybody done this before?

Should I chain an adult male and female in there, to make sure I don't lose the breeding population?

[Oneir]

Remember that an animal won't path into open space... though there's also nothing to say that multiple animals won't be standing on the plate at the moment it activates...
...
I honestly think it's a cool idea, but the best advice I can think of is to try setting the pen so that you can adjust how many hatches/plates are active at once so you can fine tune the rate at which the fall.
Do be sure to post results/pictures.

[JoRo]

If it works, post detailed plans.  My current big pit o' livestock is cumbersome, and everything gets let out when I start butchering.

[DanielLC]

To prevent them from getting out when you butcher them, build two doors, and make the path to the closer door restricted. The animals will stay near the close door, and the dwarfs will come in and go out through the far door.

I was intending to only have one hatch/plate pair. The best way to control the speed of the animals falling is by making the room bigger. If there's more room, there will be more animals. If there are more animals, they will breed more. When the system is in equilibrium, they will die as fast as they're born.

I might not do this project any time soon. The only important details are the size of the room and the size of the drop, and you can probably find people who can tell you the latter.

[Yngar the Wise]

That contraption makes a pretty funny mental image. The butcherdwarf calls up the shaft "NEXT" and a cow splats down next to him

[Footkerchief]

You might have to put a refuse stockpile under the point of impact to make sure the job gets auto-queued.  Butchers don't seem to notice corpses until they're either in the shop or in a refuse stockpile.

[DG]

Feasible or not, practical or not, workable or not, I'd just like to congratulate you for coming up with the idea in the first place.

[sneakey pete]

Whats the fastest breeding animal that isn't a cat?

[Rafal99]

A dog I think. There are 1-3 puppies per birth and it takes only one year to grow up.

[forsaken1111]

Even better would be a drawbridge that covers the square they land in which is somehow triggered when they land, so it would send them flying into the butcher's shop. 

-WHAM!-click-Woosh-SPLAT!- "Dinner!"

[Skyrage]

This sounds a bit like a Sweeney Todd-inspired idea.

[Warlord255]

I wouldn't think it'd be easy to automate, but if you can pull it off, congratulations.

Also, to chained animals breed? I know caged ones don't.

[peekama]

I wouldn't think it'd be easy to automate, but if you can pull it off, congratulations.

Also, to chained animals breed? I know caged ones don't.

I think caged animals do breed, at least if they're in the same cage.

[Rafal99]

Cages animals don't breed, however they can give birth in cages, if were caged while pregnant.

[JoRo]

I wouldn't think it'd be easy to automate, but if you can pull it off, congratulations.

Also, to chained animals breed? I know caged ones don't.

I think caged animals do breed, at least if they're in the same cage.

.

I don't think caged animals breed, since every non-pet kitten goes into the cages and I never get any kittens born to unnamed cats.