It's too much work to keep chickens fed

[Vorticella 958]

In a medieval setting you'd expect to see a handful of chickens roaming around every homestead, foraging freely to feed themselves. Their keepers would occasionally feed them some grain and kitchen scraps, but mostly they'd eat what they could find. In Wurm, it's very rare to see chickens on a deed because keeping even a small flock fed is a chore and feels like an unreasonable waste of resources.

 

If possible, it would be so much better if chickens were able to graze on natural tiles, but just enough to stay alive. Since they can eat bugs and wurms as well as grass, plants, seeds etc, it would be reasonable if they could actually forage on bush/tree and dirt tiles as well as grass, but not packed dirt or lawn. The idea is that they can survive by foraging, but will not produce anything if they aren't fed anything more. They shouldn't lay eggs or get fat from foraging, they'll just stay at "normal build". This way, it would be possible to keep a few hens around the deed to add to the cozy homestead atmosphere and make the place feel more lively, without having to drain our food storage bins or grow extra crops just to keep them from starving.

[Finnn 3,317]

you'd expect pigs to eat grass, etc, but that feeding patch made them from eating everything to.. not XD

hens are just another "pig"/eating everything they find.. offer them kfc - FEAST, they are not picky..

 

the mechanic to eat every x hours in coops makes it even crazier, you just "bought" wurm-patented tamagoci... you now have the chore to go and refill the food and water every x hours/days or they go out and starve, age, die, ..

egg production is great.. but what are the uses for eggs.. barely few recipes for RP and lulz

[Coach 196]

In a fantasy setting you'd expect to see a handful of chickens being hungry and thirsty all the time, because they need many energy to look lively for the people who want to keep them in wurm. 

[Tristanc 570]

I have a bunch of chickens and never use the crafted coops, just let them wander in a pen with a small wooden bucket loaded with vegetables.

 

Putting 12 (the max it can hold) pumpkins in the bucket in the pen keeps my chickens in that pen fed for about 2 days. My pumpkins are 70+ QL, if that makes a difference.  My chicken pens are 1x2 with 2 chickens per pen.

The bucket as a feeding container means the vegetables won't decay as fast as if I''d simply dropped a pile in the grass outside of any container.

 

With this method, they provide me with plenty of QL 99 eggs.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Tristanc

[Madnath 3,113]

Did they ever fix chickens constantly getting disease and then mass ejecting themselves everywhere?

[Morrowen 428]

+1 would like to see more grazing animals types keep in wurm.

[Vorticella 958]

30 minutes ago, Tristanc said:

I have a bunch of chickens and never use the crafted coops, just let them wander in a pen with a small wooden bucket loaded with vegetables.

 

Putting 12 (the max it can hold) pumpkins in the bucket in the pen keeps my chickens in that pen fed for about 2 days. My pumpkins are 70+ QL, if that makes a difference.  My chicken pens are 1x2 with 2 chickens per pen.

The bucket as a feeding container means the vegetables won't decay as fast as if I''d simply dropped a pile in the grass outside of any container.

 

With this method, they provide me with plenty of QL 99 eggs.

 

You're using about 90 pumpkins per month for each chicken. That's a lot even if you do want the eggs, but let's say I've collected a little flock of different coloured chickens. This can take months to do, since only hatched chickens can have different colours and it's not easy to get them. This makes them a bit special, so I care for them and plan to keep them around as pets. If I have one rooster, and one of each colour hen (brown, black, and white), I need to give them about 360 pumpkins every single month. If I have all the colours of roosters too then it's more like 540 pumpkins. Every month. That's a bit crazy isn't it? It's one thing if you actually want all those eggs for some reason, but most of us don't need the amount of eggs hens are producing. If I'm not actively farming for a while it means I'll have to make a special effort to grow crops for them because that level of consumption will clean out my food stores in no time. There are times I don't play as much, where I still need to make sure to log in regularly to make sure the chickens don't starve. This is the kind of thing that can make Wurm start to feel like a chore. 

[Vorticella 958]

16 minutes ago, Madnath said:

Did they ever fix chickens constantly getting disease and then mass ejecting themselves everywhere?

 

This was a thing?? lol! I've never heard of this or seen it so I guess that means it was fixed? 

[Sheffie 1,120]

Essentially I agree with the OP. Chickens ought to be able to survive without any attention whatsoever, and occasionally you should find an egg.

[Tristanc 570]

20 hours ago, Vorticella said:

 

You're using about 90 pumpkins per month for each chicken. That's a lot even if you do want the eggs, but let's say I've collected a little flock of different coloured chickens. This can take months to do, since only hatched chickens can have different colours and it's not easy to get them. This makes them a bit special, so I care for them and plan to keep them around as pets. If I have one rooster, and one of each colour hen (brown, black, and white), I need to give them about 360 pumpkins every single month. If I have all the colours of roosters too then it's more like 540 pumpkins. Every month. That's a bit crazy isn't it? It's one thing if you actually want all those eggs for some reason, but most of us don't need the amount of eggs hens are producing. If I'm not actively farming for a while it means I'll have to make a special effort to grow crops for them because that level of consumption will clean out my food stores in no time. There are times I don't play as much, where I still need to make sure to log in regularly to make sure the chickens don't starve. This is the kind of thing that can make Wurm start to feel like a chore. 

 

Farming is my highest skill.  I get about 10 QL 70+ pumpkins per farm tile per harvest.

No, I'm not using anywhere near more pumpkins than I grow and harvest, and have thousands total in my FSBs now as a farmer/rancher.

 

It's well worth it for me, with no burden to my deed at all.  I've got hundreds of eggs in those same FSBs, likely thousands total now, with most at 99 QL.

 

That 12 pumpkins eaten per bucket over about two days is to keep them at maximum degree of 'fatness' as well.  They could easily make do with less if I was so inclined.

In all, simply do what works best for you. I'm simply sharing what works best for me for others to consider on their own deeds.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Tristanc

[TheTrickster 2,284]

I'm not completely convinced.  

 

Chickens should definitely be fine on on almost any "botanical" tile type, with the added inclusion of dirt tiles.  The savage little blighters are totally omnivorous, even cannibalistic sometimes.

However, for safe and healthy chickens, a henhouse or "chook shed" is needed.  I don't know why Wurm's developers thought that a chicken coop/henhouse needs to be stocked with hens who then live in it round the clock.  Townees maybe?  Factory farming influence?  Anyway, a henhouse with roosting facility and nesting boxes is provided for the chooks and they will use it at night for roosting and will generally lay their eggs in the nesting box.  We have never put water and feed IN the roosting or nesting area (and really, the Wurm model is pictured as a roosting box, and in the componentry there is a nesting box and an "egg box" (whatever that is).  Essentially, if you have chickens and want to find their eggs, look in the nesting boxes.

 

So, what I would like to see is a slightly more realistic mechanic.  A chicken coop that is just for roosting and nesting and isn't loaded with chickens but is simply placed where they can access it.  No need for water (seriously, why are chickens the only animals that need to have water supplied?)  and they will find their own food (plus whatever you drop on the ground or leave in a bucket.  During the day they can wander away from the coop (x number of tiles) but will return at night.  No coop, and they keep wandering, and may wander off, and will lay eggs in whatever nooks and crannies they can consider nest-worthy.  

 

So, no to the current coops, but still have coops as an "anchor" to keep your chickens within a range, and if you want eggs, that is where you will find them.  If the eggs are fertile, then a chook will go clucky and stay on the nest and hatch them (and none of this nonsense of taking a fertile egg OUT of the coop and chucking in on the ground so it can hatch).  Or maybe, if you have a rooster or two, then MOST of the eggs will be fertile, so either take them out early or have more chickens (and the occasional rooster).

 

Basically complete poultry rework, and since we have had a major AH change not so long ago it isn't very likely, but why not go for broke and chuck in ducks as well!

 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by TheTrickster

[Vorticella 958]

1 hour ago, TheTrickster said:

for safe and healthy chickens, a henhouse or "chook shed" is needed. 

 

That's why I'm suggesting that they don't get fat or produce eggs if they are only foraging. They would survive but not fully thrive as they will if you are actively feeding them. This would make it possible to have casual pet chickens that you can feed when you want to get them fat and producing eggs, but you can also take breaks from that level of maintenance and they'll look after themselves (and go back to that "just surviving" state) in the meantime.

I totally agree that coop mechanics could use some adjustment but that's a whole other suggestion thread. For now I'm just talking about free range chickens.

 

3 hours ago, Tristanc said:

In all, simply do what works best for you.

 

I'd love to! Unfortunately right now that means just not keeping chickens. There's nothing wrong with what you're doing if it works for you and you enjoy it. It doesn't work for everyone though, otherwise we'd see a lot more people keeping chickens in Wurm.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Vorticella

[Katrat 2,296]

I keep all kinds of livestock on our deed including chickens and I have found them to be the biggest chore. More so than pigs even. They are the smallest animal yet seem to consume the most food. They also count the same in deed/tile ratio as a horse which is far greater in size.  When the coops came out I thought we would finally have a better balance with the chickens but the opposite turned out to be the case. Not only do they seem to consume more in the coops but now they need water too and on top of it all the eggs only come out the quality of the coops. How this is an upgrade is beyond me. More work for less quality output does not an upgrade make! The coops are a total joke!  Chickens should eat far less and take up half the deed/tile ratio that they do coop or no coop.

[kordethbludscythe 762]

truthfully i toss a handful of seed on the ground and go away for 2 days and the chickens are good and lay well, the pigs on the other hand cost me more resources to keep and if i dont pull venerable pigs from the sty before they die i end up with no bacon

but i get plenty of eggs

 

[Karrde 342]

The current restrictions on chickens are a reaction to a time when abandoned chicken farms overloaded server populations...

 

Hence the great chicken crusades of the early 2000s to rid the land of the Foul menace.

 

You could have hundreds of self-replicating chickens on a single tile, typically being fed with wemp seed when one could get both fiber and seed.

 

Nowadays theres all kinds of systems to limit over-crowding: disease, hunger, age, needing fertile eggs, and etc.

 

Makes complete sense to dial back the old chicken restrictions.

[TheTrickster 2,284]

14 hours ago, Karrde said:

a time when abandoned chicken farms overloaded server populations...

 

14 hours ago, Karrde said:

hundreds of self-replicating chickens

 

Now there's a post-apocalyptic vision I have never come across.