Chickens

[Kiyalynn]

You know, I grew up a chicken farmer. I've bred chickens, I've hatched chickens, I've slaughtered chickens... but more importantly I did the daily task of gathering eggs. On the farm we would hatch a batch of 20 chickens in the spring because if you hatched any earlier there was a high chance of chicks dying even with heat lamps.

I guess that's why the balance of in game chickens bothers me so much. I hope this is simply a factor of early access with chickens only being partially integrated because that's how they feel.

See the PRIMARY reason to raise chickens is a daily batch of eggs. It's an easy to get, high nutrition food that is one of the most diverse ingredients in cooking. Note HIGH nutrition and cooking, both of which are lacking in current development.

One egg per 1800s day at 1000 food per egg means gathering eggs nets 1.8 nutrition per second (n/s). But letting that egg hatch, since they are all 100% fertilized and the chickens sit on each one regardless of season gives 8 meat in 24,000s (3,600s egg, 5,400s chick, 12,600s juvenile) for a net of 9n/s. Which means it's pointless to bother to click demolish on every egg (as the only way to get unfertilized eggs is to have a sorority and clanfolk won't gather fertilized eggs) as the net food gain is far better from butchering the chickens. On top of the hassle of manually unfertilizing eggs or separating chickens (when often players take them as an cheap animal and don't have two barns set up) eggs are simply eaten raw rather than cooked.

Which leads me to the next balance problem with chickens. See, if chickens are only good for meat then they compete in the same slot as the pigs. However pigs take 43,200s (16,200s pregnacy, 9,000 baby, 18,000s Juvinile ) to yield 60 meat and 8 fresh hide. The nutrition per second for boars is 4.16.... however, that is for a litter of ONE. The RANGE for boars for the same time is 4.17-16.7n/s. Now the exact numbers here vary on the multiple chance (which from personal experience seams high), but lets just set the average at 10.5 n/s. But they also give hides, used for all sorts of clothing and chickens don't. Given this as much as I love chickens I can't help but feel that managing them, feeding them and the time spent by clanfolk caring for them is pointless. I'm better off selling all of them and going with boars or figuring out the math for the other animals and prioritizing them.

All of this means, that the eggs need an overhaul. My suggestion would be to have a 'brooding nest'. In which one chicken sits on 3-6 eggs (chickens do NOT sit on one egg, they sit on many often laid from multiple hens) to get a batch of chicks once a season except for winter. Beyond that eggs should be automatically gathered, 1 per hen per day (including the brooding hen), just like milk. Then eggs should be an easy to obtain item, steady food for a colony and perfect for use in cooking recipes. It would be so simple to add 'fried egg' to the cooking list. Or better yet, how about a nice mushroom omelette? 1 egg, 1 mushroom (fresh or dried) with a competitive nutrition amount.

[keltobin]

I would like something to do with dried and fresh mushrooms. I was going to suggest a mushroom stew, but if it can make use of eggs, then all the better.

[Philtre]

Please keep in mind that the game is early in development and the food system is not complete. The dev has already said that there will be more foodstuffs and more recipes, including uses for eggs.

[kismoore]

Seams to me that if you kill the rooster, you no longer should get baby chicken but instead just eggs for consumption

[Finjachan]

Or of you house the female chicks without a male.

Originally posted by kismoore:

Seams to me that if you kill the rooster, you no longer should get baby chicken but instead just eggs for consumption

[Mr. Wiggles]

Chickens have one big problem imo: they occupy as much space as a much more productive cow, pig or sheep. They need animal beds, which are hay and labor intensive to maintain. In this game having chickens around is a nuisance.

[maara.kai]

I absolutely love the idea of mushroom omelettes! 1) I'm a fan, 2) I end up with way more dried mushrooms that we ever use. If nothing else can we add dried mushrooms to the random cookpot list? That would make food in the winter a lot easier. The biggest hurdle is fresh greens.

In real life, fresh greens were very scarce except at peak season. All your stews were meat and a starch or grain. Being able to use up dried mushrooms in this way would be more realistic.