Chicken, everywhere and nowhere

[Grimmrog]

Until yesterday, i haven't seen any Chicken around, and then suddenly 6 hends 4 chicks. wow, grabbed 2 hens and 4 chicks, retunred home, build a branch fence (which couldn't hold them, at leats some chicks sneaked through it.).

But some strange things appeared with them:

I actually have two characters, one staying at home, being heavily wounded by ants. One going out discovering the map (in second generation after drowning in the river).

So the discovery char went out, found said 4 hens and 4 chicks far in the east, grabbed some of them returned home, I put them outside my house and switched to the other character.

Logged in, all of them were still there, build the fence with my home character, put them in.
everything fine.
Then I switched to the discovery char again for a clay farming mission. And went west. There I stumbled over a cock, 7 hens and a few chicks. grabbed the cock, wringed 3 necks and grabbed the chicks, returned home, put all of them withing the fence.
Wow, where did all the Chicken came from suddenly? All the previous fenced Chicken were still withing that 7x7 fenced area.

After this, I wanted to let the home character go out and grab the other 4 left hens, to unlock the feather discovery. But they were suddenly gone (2mins after the discovery char was at this place). I know, no one is online around. So I went home a bit dissapointed about not having another 3 lunches of roasted chicken and the pissibility to make feather duster. But all the chicken I set out home were gone too, not a single one nearby or futher around. There were all gone right after logging in again, but I haven't realised this right at that moment.
I went with my home character, faaar to the east where I first spotted chicken. At least some more chicken meat should be there. but they were gone too. (Then I thought, my homecharacter can not see chicken - yeah I know silly idea ^^, but changing back to discover character didn't changed the situation).

What happened here? How did all chickens suddenly disappear? They poofed away as fast as they came. Did the server messed something up?
Did someone sacrificed a chicken on the temple? o.O I was really confused after this.

[kverg]

You need to build a chicken coop to keep them from despawning


http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Chicken_Coop

[Grimmrog]

I know this fact, but I thought that livestock is handled serversided, So they shoudl still be there. But after one of the logins, suddely ALL were gone. Even those thta were in the wilderness.

So whats the exact mechanic behind wild animals (especially chicken)? Are chickens existence related to the ingame time of a day? But I didn't read anything about that on the wiki, so I guess no.

Im actually on a kind of peninsula, so I wanted to gather them tehe to keep them around until I got the possibility to build the Coop

[kaisura]

"Wild flocks of chicken may randomly spawn on a Grassland, Moor, or Heath."

Taken straight from the wiki: http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Chicken

[Grimmrog]

"Wild flocks of chicken may randomly spawn on a Grassland, Moor, or Heath."

Taken straight from the wiki: http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Chicken

So it was pure randomness, that I found 2 on the same day while I have never seen them before. Hmm ok, but why did they simultaneously despawned altogether? Was the switching character logs juts also random together with their dissapearance? I mean how much randomness can come together to create this? This seemed for a noob like me more than a conjunction of "random" events.

[kaisura]

"Wild flocks of chicken may randomly spawn on a Grassland, Moor, or Heath."

Taken straight from the wiki: http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Chicken

So it was pure randomness, that I found 2 on the same day while I have never seen them before. Hmm ok, but why did they simultaneously despawned altogether? Was the switching character logs juts also random together with their dissapearance? I mean how much randomness can come together to create this? This seemed for a noob like me more than a conjunction of "random" events.

I believe so, there are days when I find chickens and there are days where I simply have no luck. Chickens are a good source of food along with rabbit for the early game for this reason.

[TeckXKnight]

Having no players in an area to keep it loaded for a few minutes will cause the map to despawn along with any creatures inhabiting it. The time is variable. This will despawn boars, bears, mouflon, aurochs, chickens, trolls, and rabbits. Re-entering that area can then cause these animals to spawn again as long as their spawn criteria is met. For example, grassland, heath, or moor must be present for mouflon, aurochs, or chickens to spawn.