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[Girlinhat]

You can build them in the craftsdwarf shop from wood or stone, or any forge from metal, or from glass.  No clay nests, sadly.

[Greiger]

In the name of science I did an experiment.  I gave my half dragon race the egg tags and made a few nest boxes and made some behavior studies.

A fortress civ race WILL use nest boxes if they lay eggs.  In fact it seems that a random female will claim a nest box the moment it is built, immediately rush to it, and after a few ticks lay an egg inside it. Of note is that all subjects so far are unmarried. They will then IMMEDIATELY haul the egg to the nearest food stockpile.  Noone has eaten the first test egg yet, but it hasn't been very long, and since the race also has [CARNIVORE] it might suffer from the usual carnivore pickyness and wouldn't eat any eggs regardless, so I can't test that definitively.

After a second attempt building two more nests, since my first subject still hangs around her nest but isn't laying, I managed to catch 2 females the moment they laid eggs in the nests and forbid the eggs.  Which should allow them to hatch normally.

Since this is a heavily modified custom race there is also a diverse number of castes, and so far, oddly the eggs seem to be of the same or similar caste as the mother. The first test subject was a white dracon, and laid a white egg.  The 2nd and third were both black, and laid black eggs.

Another observation is that the owners of the nestsseem to spend all their time there, not working, and only leaving to eat or drink and coming right back.


...more to come as the experimenting continues.

P.S. Further observation shows that the subjects WILL leave the nest to work.  Subject 3 is an animal trainer.  When I ordered a kennel built she left the nest to build it.

[Girlinhat]

My short-run test with chickens showed that the chicken would claim a nest immediately, lay an egg immediately the egg gets hauled, and the chicken stays there.  Presumably, this is to encourage the egg to hatch via mother's warmth, but in practice the egg isn't there anymore, so... yeah, it's a new release.  Bug-finding yay!

[Rumrusher]

well looks like adventure mode breeding got a little easier now when I could just bypass having a male counterpart and slap a egg tag on the race.
still going to be hard to remove said tag or prevent the adventuress from dieing when abandon but I take it the nest is some type of new building that only in fort mode.

[Greiger]

It seems immediately forbidding the egg, or not having a stockpile for the egg keeps it within the egg box.  (The egg box icon even changes when an egg is inside).  Rumor is keeping the egg in the box for a season hatches it.  So that's what I'm trying with the 2 subjects who's eggs I managed to keep in the boxes.

P.S. Subject one, whose egg is in the food stockpile instead of the egg box, seems to have abandoned her nest.  It is still flagged as owned by her, and noone else (not even the fortress' chickens) is trying to claim it.  She is currently hanging out in the meeting hall, unlike the other two subjects who stay at the nest during all of their free time.

P.P.S.  Scratch that.  During the time it took to pose the edit it seems a blue peahen claimed the empty nest and left an egg.  So it seems empty nests eventually get abandoned so a new owner can take it.

yea the nest is a new building made at the craft shop like a mill and then built someplace on the map.  Intended for use with chickens I'm guessing.

[Girlinhat]

Can you forbid eggs from stockpiles, or are they not listed somewhere?

Also, I saw chickens laying a stack of 14 eggs.  14 baby chickens soon?

[Greiger]

Yea eggs are listed in the food stockpile and sorted by caste.  So it's not hard to simply forbid yer races eggs from the food stockpiles.

From the way I understand it, if they never left the nest box yea.

[fivex]

Apparently you can now have reactions in the still and craftdwarf's workshop.
Possibly others?

[Uristocrat]

Wait!  What we really need are animals that lay boulders of metal ores and gems!

Or we could just mod back in the "prospecting" thing for random stones, but that would be too realistic.

[Girlinhat]

I've debated iron trees before...  A stone egg would certain be possible, but the issue would then be making the eggs melt-able, or something.  A custom reaction to turn an egg into a bar of iron would be easy enough though.

[fivex]

I've debated iron trees before...  A stone egg would certain be possible, but the issue would then be making the eggs melt-able, or something.  A custom reaction to turn an egg into a bar of iron would be easy enough though.

You can change the egg into something else, like a bar of metal!

[Rumrusher]

Got wind that wild animals will take over nest so hopefully this means more crazy traps for goblins, Kobolds.

[Girlinhat]

I can confirm.  Turkey hens bum-rushed my egg experiment and claimed half my nests.  It was lulzy

[Uristocrat]

Got wind that wild animals will take over nest so hopefully this means more crazy traps for goblins, Kobolds.

Wait... goblins lay eggs now?

[Girlinhat]

Anything can lay eggs if tagged only slightly.