Does Hay Rot or Not?

[jessienebulous]

I'm still new, and have a question. According to the information in the game, hay does not deteriorate (shows as 0.0/day) but I have hay rotting away in my barn. . . so, what gives? It has the flap door and it's covered. Some even rotted when it was the dead of winter and it should have been frozen. Google search has conflicting information. So, any help would be appreciated.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Hay does rot, which is a different mechanic from deterioration. Unrefrigerated hay has a shelf life of about 60 days before rotting.

If the barn is not kept below freezing the hay will eventually rot, animals inside the barn will raise the temperature.

[jessienebulous]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Hay does rot, which is a different mechanic from deterioration. Unrefrigerated hay has a shelf life of about 60 days before rotting.

If the barn is not kept below freezing the hay will eventually rot, animals inside the barn will raise the temperature.

Ah. I think the body heat from the animals must be the culprit, then. Thank you.

[apud.harald]

60 days really is enough.

[Antearz]

Originally posted by jessienebulous:

I'm still new, and have a question. According to the information in the game, hay does not deteriorate (shows as 0.0/day) but I have hay rotting away in my barn. . . so, what gives? It has the flap door and it's covered. Some even rotted when it was the dead of winter and it should have been frozen. Google search has conflicting information. So, any help would be appreciated.

Spoiling/Rotting and Deterioation are different Mechanics :)

Deteriorate means it will lose Hitpoints.
A Meal can Deteriorate if its kept outside.
But if its Winter and below 0 Degrees outside. It wont Spoil or Rot.

Spoiling/Rotting meanwhile does not affect Hitpoints. But can instantly destroy or change an Item.
So a Meal can be put in a Storageroom where it wont Deteriorate at all. But it will still Spoil/Rot if its not Frozen.



Hay is Organic.
So it must be kept in a closed Freezer to be Protected from both.

Steel or Stone can be kept outside. It neither Spoils nor Deteriorates.

Normal Items like Weapons or Clothes dont Spoil or Rot. But will Deteriorate.
So they must be kept inside but dont need a Freezer.

[Red Bat]

If you have hay rotting, you have way too much of it. At 60 days shelf life you shouldn't even need to keep it refrigerated. Why would you ever need to store a years worth of hay?

[someonesneaky]

Deterioration:
If an item is outside, not under a roof, is in standing or running water, is being rained on, it will decay
That means its durability / hit points will gradually go down until the item vanishes
That's how corpses, apparel, weapons, et cetera left outside eventually disappear.
Most things have a decay rate, but some things do not - all minified buildings, metals such as steel and silver, all stone bricks. Items stored on shelves will not deteriorate, which lets them be safely stored outside, no matter the weather, terrain, or roofing status.

Rotting:
If a perishable item such as food is left unfrozen, it will slowly rot. You can see the timer when selecting it, it'll tell you that it'll spoil in X days. It doesn't matter where or how you store it, anything that can rot will rot if you don't freeze it. That's the only way to keep products fresh.
In general, perishable items are raw food (meat, vegetables, etc), meals, most plant matter, and such. But it also includes herbal medicine, Ambrosia, wort, but does not include kibble, chocolate, or hemogen.
Some perishables have a very long shelf life, like hay, pemmican, and herbal meds. You can store them for a long time, preferably in shelves.

So even though the hay isn't deteriorating, it's slowly rotting away, because it's not refrigerated. You'll need to either store less in the barn, or build your animals a dedicated freezer - animal flaps work perfectly well for holding in temperature, especially if it's a smallish room with an airlock.