Should i keep my chickens?

[Benzin]

A group of about 10 chickens (male & female) have arrived on my colony and are now mine.
I would like to keep them, so i been reading about how to handle them. But i keep reading "horror stories" about chickens devastating entire crops, causing famine, turning the colony into a big chicken poop mountain, needing more care than people, and even molesting colonists (JK of course).

I only have 5 people in the colony and plenty of food. My idea for keeping them was not for meat from them, but to have eggs, eating them when they die (just for variety), and mostly because i kinda like seeing them arround.

Im still learning the game, so i have no idea of what to expect from them in terms of problems.

So would you advice i keep them? and if so, i know i need to plan on controlling their population by separating roosters from chickens, providing them an isolated walled area, but im not sure how i would feed them? If i grow hay somewhere else, will my colonist feed them?

And, from what ibe read, i DO have to keep them indoors (like a barn) due to temperature sensitivity right?

thanks for your advice.

[Jigain]

Chickens are useful in the sense that they give you a reliable source of protein through their sheer numbers and eggs. They also eat very little, so haygrass is a perfect source of nutrition for them.

Since chickens are somewhat hard to get when you actually want them, I'd recommend keeping them. Start growing haygrass, and once you have just a small stack of it you can zone the chickens into a building designated as a coop, store the haygrass in a stockpile zone there, and be pretty much done with it. You can zone male chickens (roosters) and female chickens separately, this will ensure eggs do not get fertilized and you don't get an explosion of chicks after a few days. If it's too many chickens for you for now, I'd keep maybe 4-5 females and 2 roosters, slaughter the rest. Then micromanage the zones when you want more chicks.

Managing chickens isn't difficult, the ones who complain about "chicksplosions" and the like are usually those who start using chickens for the first time or someone who just forgot to manage the zoning.

[Xilo The Odd]

yeah Jigain has it on the money. its a micromanage task all on its own, but its a great way to keep a colony happy.

i do wish without mods it was possible to train kamikazi attack chickens though.

20 people have come to raid your base.

grab a your sniper rifles and RELEASE THE CHICKENS! Tonight, we dine, at KFC!

[M.K.]

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

yeah Jigain has it on the money. its a micromanage task all on its own, but its a great way to keep a colony happy.

i do wish without mods it was possible to train kamikazi attack chickens though.

20 people have come to raid your base.

grab a your sniper rifles and RELEASE THE CHICKENS! Tonight, we dine, at KFC!

1)Create zone in path of raiders.
2)Limit all chickens to that zone
3)Profit

Also works with other dumb animals, like boomrat. Nice, explosive, boomrats

[elipod]

Just remember to zone chickens away from meals, they are very inefficient with big food, using whole meal to fill small chicken stomach.

[Wit]

A rather dark use for them en masse is to use them for vivisection. Every operation performed on a chicken is going to bump up your medic's skill a little, and even if they're a terrible medic to begin with, it turns their horrific medical disasters into a delicious sunday dinner at the very worst!

[Benzin]

Thanks for all the tips guys!

Here´s what i came up with...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1655966796

I fenced off the area with wood (only to keep predators away from the chickens), and restricted the chickens to that area.
I built two small barns with sleep boxes in them so they can sleep inside and have proper climate in winter. Reason i built two small ones, instead of one larger one, is that for population control i can separate the roosters from the chickens so they dont lay fertilized eggs.

To feed them, i planted a medium size hay zone in front wich is off-limits to them, then i build small stockpiles inside their barn set to only take hay. For now, they can eat the weed in their area untill the hay grows.

For population control, i figure i can do one of three things. And i would appreciate your suggestions on wich is better and why:

1.- Separate roosters and chickens as described before.

2.- Just allow my cooks to use fertilized eggs in meals.

3.- Allow storage of fertilized eggs on the freezer.

Im considering going with option 1, as the others rely on ppl transfering the fertilized eggs before they hatch.

What do you guys think? wich of these should i use for population control?

[Kiwi]

Which biome are you playing?

I usually just rotate fields for them or any other farm animals and store haygrass/kibbles/paste for the winter and cold snaps. The fields are usually within my walls to prevent predators hunting them. You can make separate enclosures too to rotate if that's not how your base is setup.

You can always assign safe temperature and sleeping areas in the same zone so that they can go back and forth between grazing and sleeping on their own. It doesn't have to be connected.

You can always make a mini barn for them to sleep in with safe temperature and sleeping spots. Unless it's really cold, (I don't have a specific number in my mind at the moment) chickens will be fine. You will have time to bring them indoor to defrost if it comes to that.

If you are short on food in the dead of winter, you could get away feeding most animals every other day and they will be okay.

[Jigain]

Option 1 is the best. Preventative measures are always better than reactive measures. You could go for option two or three, or both, but if something happens and nobody has the time to haul/cook the eggs for a while, suddenly you'll have a dozen or more chicks on your hands to deal with.

[Kiwi]

They don't really need sleeping boxes. Hehe. Can just assign sleeping spots. But if you like boxes, then by all means.

5 hens aren't going to be that much of trouble. If you don't intend to have more than 5 hens, then just keep an eye on the animal tab and cull them every once in awhile. If you don't intend to have any fertilized eggs hatch then there's no need to keep the roosters. Fertilized eggs sell well if I recall correctly but I don't remember ever attempting to bank on them. Freezing will damage the fertilized eggs permanently and decrease the value too I think.

[Jigain]

Keeping a pair of roosters is useful if he later on decides to expand the chicken farm. Roosters are kind of needed if one wants more chickens, after all.

Also, without roosters, your chickens will eventually die out due to old age since there is no reproduction capability.

[Kiwi]

Your enclosure is big enough to let the hens graze and you don't have to worry about feeding them most of the time. If you let them graze together then there's no point having separate barns. You don't have to keep them inside the barn if the temperature isn't way below freezing. As long as there are grass for them to eat, you can let them go into the barn for safe temperature and they will be fine. Usually no grass = not safe temperature.

[Kiwi]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Keeping a pair of roosters is useful if he later on decides to expand the chicken farm. Roosters are kind of needed if one wants more chickens, after all.

Also, without roosters, your chickens will eventually die out due to old age since there is no reproduction capability.

I totally agree. 5:2 is a good ratio and I wouldn't worry too much about overpopulation unless you never look at your animals for the whole season.

[Benzin]

Thanks guys.

I have 24 chickens now! LOL So i separated them temporarily to slow down their reproduction. (these animals put rabbits to shame haha). Plus I sold off a few roosters because i had more roosters than hens.

Winter is kicking in. So i reduced their outside allowed space so they are allways close to the barns (wich are heated). Dont want them to get caught up in the cold of the night and die.

Plus, if i wanted them reproducing again during the winter, i would have to set stockpiles inside the heated barns configured to ONLY take fertilized eggs, and hope my ppl can haul those eggs in before they freeze. Correct?
I could of course, just keep the chickens inside the barns (i would have to join those barns for reproduction).

@Kiwi: Im on "Template Forest". About the sleeping boxes, i had actually placed just sleeping spots, but those boxes make it look more like a real chicken house haha

seeing how usefull those eggs are, and that the chickens can be sold for a tidy ammount, Im considering increasing my population to say, 50 or 60. Guess ill have to expand my hay area!

Thanks for all your help guys!

[Jigain]

No worries, glad we could help.

If it's winter and no grass is growing outside, I'd zone them indoors for the duration of the winter. Which, by extension, means all eggs will be laid indoors, in the warmth. This also means they don't need to be hauled anywhere.

[Benzin]

hmm, this is not working out!
It seems all that hatch out of those eggs are roosters, never hens!
Im little over 50 chickens now, and i far only about 15 hens :(
Roosters dont lay eggs!

I dont suppose there is a way to increase the chances of getting hens instead of roosters?