I decided to blow the dust off of my DF installation and do some ‼SCIENCE‼ of my own. This is the first fort that I've founded for the sole purpose of doing ‼SCIENCE‼, so it's a new experience for me. Usually it's "make a perfect fortress with some ‼SCIENCE‼ on the side" and the ‼SCIENCE‼ suffers. The fort is messy and most industries are non-existent, but there's a dining room, good food and drink, and everyone has a bed room. I've already captured some badgers (the first cage trap caught one before my mechanic could even finish building the second one, and all the materials were on site) and breeding is proceeding at a nice pace. I decided to turn off invasions so that I won't have to bother with a military.
I've set up two daycare centers, each capable of holding four tots. The first one is quite spartan; a 1x1 room full of badgers, a door, a standard-or-fine quality bed, a food stockpile, and the door to freedom. Floors and walls are smoothed. The second is more luxurious; a 1x2 room with a mist-shrouded statue and a pile of badgers, connected via door to a 2x2 room with bed, chair, table, and food stockpile, then a second door to freedom. The floors and walls are engraved, and furnishings will be high quality.
I'm doing something a bit different with the tile where the badgers are. It's actually a grate covering a 1x1 pond. I intend to dump soap as well as badgers into the room. Hopefully the tykes will voluntarily clean themselves up occasionally (unlike my own children), reducing the risk of infection. We shall see.
The odd thing is that I've had at least six migrant waves so far, but not a single child. I was hoping to use immigrant children to get the benefit of protective clothing, but I guess the parents at the mountainhome know that something's up. I do have to native babies, though, so once they're old enough, I'll isolate them in the spartan day care rooms.
The lack of children has given me time to try selectively breeding the badgers. I've got a couple of females that are gigantic but incredibly weak, and I'm breeding for those traits. I suppose small or skinny would be better than gigantic, at least as far as the dwarven subjects' health goes, but I have to work with what I've got.