Chicks in Chicken Coop Nooby Question

[wolfwing]

Ok so everywhere I look it says to give a chick a 2x2 space in a chicken coop, but the thing I can't find any info on is how to set the chick in that 2x2 space, or if it matters.

AKA:
C - Chick
X - Empty Space

CX XC XX XX
XX XX CX XC


Which of the above patterns is correct? or does it even matter?

I'm asking cause I had a setup like the following:

CXCXCX
XXXXXX

And a grown chicken (G) showed up as follows

CGGXCX
XGGXXX

I'd like to make sure the next few chicks won't miss hte growing up stage if they are places wrong

Thank You

[Girlinhat]

I have my coop like so...

Code: Select all

C+C+C+C+
++++++++
++++++++
HHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHH
E+C+EE++
C++C++RR
++++++RR

With Chicks, Hens, Eggs, Rooster, and Empty space as +

This gives each hen a 1x2 area to lay eggs, and a bit of room for 2 chicks at the bottom. Note though, that when a chick matures, it acts like a crafted item, and will not occupy the space it did. It will instead occupy the first available 2x2 space, and count their own space as already filled (as in, it creates the chicken, then deletes the chick). This means you need an available 2x2 area for a chick to mature, hence the 2x3 areas per chick. They get bumped when they mature, or killed and used for meat and bones. This may not be the best method, but once you hit your quality limit, it gives you room to grow 2 chicks for higher quality, and 6 hens laying eggs for food or breeding.

Also of note, if you're going full industry, pumpkins are good for chickens. Chickens don't eat often, and like two pumpkins will keep a coop sustained easily enough, just dump the whole pumpkin in and it fills the coop ~1/3 full.

[wolfwing]

Cool! Thank You for the detailed response!

Now I can make sure my coop is setup properly!

As far as fodder goes, I have a 10x10 section of carrots growing that I sue for feed atm, Previously I had a 10x10 section of beetroots, but that one is now Flax. Once I setup my next section I will have a 4x4 section for beetroots, but i need to do some plowing/paving first. I also have an odd shaped section that if it was square would be about 7x6 or so that is pumpkins. I've been using the beetroots and carrots for feed, but I will likely use the pumpkins once there is room in the feed section again, its mostly full right now.

[Girlinhat]

Carrots work awesome, as you can replant the carrots themselves and thus conserve some inventory space, but this also means you can't toss beetroot leaves into the coop. Either work, but you don't need a massive field for chickens. A 3x3 of either would be more than enough.

On the other hand, if you have a large beetroot field, you can somewhat easily toss the leaves into troughs, sort the beets themselves (hover over the cupboard and ctrl-shift-mousehweel for quality control), plant the best, and use the others to feed cattle or sheep when you get them.

[MagicManICT]

It doesn't really matter with the chicks. They just need some sort of 2x2 space to grow up.

I usually have:

Code: Select all

CCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCC
CCxxCCxx
CCxxCCxx
CCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCC
RRxxxxxx
RRxxxxxx

I've seen chicks move from the middle to the very bottom when they mature, so I gave up on moving them around.

You can even fit an 11th hen in there if you want to micromanage it more.