Sick chicken & Dirty chicken hutch

[Sqrl]

Hello,
so in my latest B42 game I took over a farm but only after a couple days all my chicken got sick - they just lay flat in the hutch and dont produce eggs and if I take them out of the hutch and release them they just die on the spot, so i keep them in there. Any idea what to do about them to get them healthy and laying eggs again? They've been like this for about a week now.

And another thing, possibly related: I've also noticed that the hutch is getting dirty super fast, even if I clean it twice per day it still gets easily to 100% dirtiness. It might explain why they got sick but it seems to me that keeping it clean is almost impossible. Is there an option for this please (I didn't notice any dirtiness rate option in the sandbox options)? I'd set it to 5% of the current dirtiness rate cause as it is it's absurdly fast in my opinion.

[Xenomorph]

Build more hutches. This sounds like you have way, way too many chickens

[Sqrl]

Oh okay, I can try that. What's the optimal number of chickens per hutch? Like I said, I just took over a farm where they already were, I didn't build any of it so and I figured since they still have some empty places inside they don't need more. But sure, let me try, thanks for the idea.

[phoofaphant]

there is no way to get them healthy again, they are dead. that's why they are laying flat. that's why they are dead when you remove them. they are dead. your hutch is full of dead chickens. that's why it's getting dirty.

[Sqrl]

Hm, when I grab them and do info on them it says they are "sickly" but well fed and not thirsty. Oh well, I guess its nuggies for dinner then xD

[Buwaro Elexion]

it does however work as an impromptu freezer for them, since the don't "die" until they exist in the world, kept a chicken "fresh" for months by having a spare separate dirty hutch(hutches get dirty even without any animals)

[richardallard]

Originally posted by phoofaphant:

there is no way to get them healthy again, they are dead. that's why they are laying flat. that's why they are dead when you remove them. they are dead. your hutch is full of dead chickens. that's why it's getting dirty.

You can heal them! If you get an animal trailer and put them in it, the birds will recover in a few days. Remember not to drop them once you have picked them up or they will die, but in the trailer they cannot make a mess and will eventually recover. I always keep an animal trailer close to the chicken coops in case I forget to clean them and they get sick.

[Sqrl]

Originally posted by richardallard:

You can heal them! If you get an animal trailer and put them in it, the birds will recover in a few days. Remember not to drop them once you have picked them up or they will die, but in the trailer they cannot make a mess and will eventually recover. I always keep an animal trailer close to the chicken coops in case I forget to clean them and they get sick.

Is there no way to heal them without it?

[richardallard]

Originally posted by Hexx:

Originally posted by richardallard:

You can heal them! If you get an animal trailer and put them in it, the birds will recover in a few days. Remember not to drop them once you have picked them up or they will die, but in the trailer they cannot make a mess and will eventually recover. I always keep an animal trailer close to the chicken coops in case I forget to clean them and they get sick.

Is there no way to heal them without it?

Not that I'm aware of. I tried to keep the birds in their coop clean, but they remained sick. Only when I put them in the trailer did they ever recover.

[Colt]

The whole hutch dirtiness system is a disaster. It needs to be able to be turned off and the speed at which chickens get sick from it needs to be massively adjusted. I've raised chickens decades in more crowded conditions than I have in game, clean my coops once a year, and have never had a chicken get sick or die from a dirty coop let alone die after 1 day.