Best time to start using animals?

[Gentleman]

As the title says: at what time is it best to start using animals? As soon as I can afford a Coop with 4 chickens / Barn with 4 cows? Or faster return from crops will still be preferable in early game?

(Also, looking for tips on animals in general.)

[Rafein]

probably when you can afford it.

I like having them, more for cooking and energy. I usually carry big stacks of food when doing skull mines, and with a decent coop/barn going, I usually make 30-40 omllets as a nice energy boost

[Tsuki]

Personally i went with buying a coop in fall. I had 16k and bought a coop, 2 chickens, some feed to get me started and a silo. I ended up with only 5k left at the end.
I wouldnt buy it as soon as you have the money since theres a bunch of things to buy just to get started. You can get by well enough with just the crops in the first year.
I would earn what you can from crops in spring and summer, and then think about getting animals if you have enough.

[Gentleman]

To clarify, I am still in very early game, so I need them for money, not cooking (I don't even have a kitchen yet I figured kitchen should wait until after animals.)

[Tsu]

In the end of fall. Animals are great during winter (but pigs)

Right now i only have 12 pigs and 12 rabbits.

[Tsuki]

I actually bought my kitchen before my animals, although i have never actually used it xD

[Tim Timsen]

I had animals for a year, then I sold them all and demolished the buildings, because it was too much trouble for too little income in comparison to Ancient Fruit Wine-making and crops in general.
I only consider them useful for the Community Center Bundles. Apart from that, they are (like fruit trees) a thing to have.

[Bear^]

Animals are a great source of secondary income if you process the goods. I have 6 chicken, 2 ducks and 4 cows producing eggs, and they're all more or less at full hearts (the cows need to be a bit more happy). And it's an average trickle of around 2 000 a day for labour that takes around 1 hour in-game time. So while it's not as profitable as other things, it's a good "bottom line" operation. And that average 2 000 a day quickly becomes around 220 000 a year for something that doesn't take that much work to begin with.

So I recommend having animals, it's not that much work bound to it, and yields a nice little profit a month that is rather good during a season where nothing grows.

[Chief Kay Strongbow]

Get ducks and rabbits asap so you can finish the community bundles faster. Other than that animals aren't really useful besides cooking.. Farming is the better option.

[Gentleman]

Speaking of work, if I have grass available, all I have to do is open coop/barn in the morning and close it in the evening (and collect/process goods), is that right?

Originally posted by Kateriix:

Get ducks and rabbits asap so you can finish the community bundles faster. Other than that animals aren't really useful besides cooking.. Farming is the better option.

And on the matter of farming, I sadly feel I've reached limit to how much crops I can grow Currently, most of my energy goes into just watering my crops.

[Tsuki]

Originally posted by Kasumi Tani:

Speaking of work, if I have grass available, all I have to do is open coop/barn in the morning and close it in the evening (and collect/process goods), is that right?

I dont even do this, i just go in collect the produce and thats it, the animals go back in on a night theirselves, i dont bother shutting it, only in winter do i bother, when they dont need to be out and you have to feed them by hand.

Originally posted by Kasumi Tani:

And on the matter of farming, I sadly feel I've reached limit to how much crops I can grow :skyesad: Currently, most of my energy goes into just watering my crops.

Ide suggest making sprinklers, they will save you so much effort in watering crops every morning.