Raising Chickens @&^%$#*&

[Zuleica]

OK, I built a chicken coop, put 6 chickens in it, filled their food and water meter to 100%. Then I went to my other base and spent the night, came back next day same time i'd set it up...just ONE day later...ALL chickens are dead and the food and water meters are at zero.

Really? What do I have to do stand over them and constantly feed and water them?

[McWonderBeast]

Originally posted by Zuleica:

OK, I built a chicken coop, put 6 chickens in it, filled their food and water meter to 100%. Then I went to my other base and spent the night, came back next day same time i'd set it up...just ONE day later...ALL chickens are dead and the food and water meters are at zero.

Really? What do I have to do stand over them and constantly feed and water them?

Well if you have ever spent any time on a farm chickens are fed every morning.

They realistic wouldn't starve to death in one day though.

Growing crops and raising animals for sure need some balance.

[8mob8]

dude u can skip feeding chickens for quite awhile long as they arent caged

we throw out couple handfuls of corn a day and then they on their own...keeps em healthy and ensures a varied diet

[McWonderBeast]

Originally posted by 8mob8:

dude u can skip feeding chickens for quite awhile long as they arent caged

Yep as the OP said his chickens were cooped. Either way it needs balance.

1 day even cooped shouldn't kill them.

[Old Musty Fiddle]

Don't put 6 chickens in at one time. Takes a lot of monitoring if u do. Do you have free range upgrade? That is a must. Did u put brand new chickens in there? If so those chickens are not at full health...can see their health bar... Best way is this: put 2-3 in, have free range upgrade first, feed and water each morning. When they get to level 10 kill them and start again. Have your plant bed up and running for tomatoes and have a stock of them first. Don't go past 4 at one time cuz the return on investment isn't worth it after more than 4 at one time. The animal housing is a very good option CG added and works very well in combo with plant bed.

[Timbazorg]

This feature needs work. Its hard to survive and divide your food with even 2 chicken at the time.

[Barbalius]

Animal housing works great if its full upgrade first (free range), also full upgrade on plant bed to ground tomatoes and full upgrade waterhead and your set; one chicken at the time max. 2 or add second chicken when the first is around lvl 7-8, take away or kill the lvl 10 chicken, they wont make eggs anymore n just poop, feed most with berries a water, time to time 1 or 2 tomatoes to make em happy :) Good luck.-

[Maerkuz]

Originally posted by Mandinga:

This feature needs work. Its hard to survive and divide your food with even 2 chicken at the time.

When are you starting to domesticate?

Just because the option is there, doesn't mean to do it right away.

The whole point is to establish YOUrself first...THEN branch out when you are at a stable point.

I'm on day 8 and I still don't even have my BCU on yet... I'm making sure I have enough supplies, (ie: Shotgun Shells, Water, & Building supplies.), before I even get into something like that.

Grind up to get a fridge and hunt wolves to keep it stocked...once you have enouh food for YOU, then worry about mass-farming for livestock.

You'll be constantly starving otherwise.

I suggest a fridge, 9 cooked steaks, a plant bed, and enough power/mass gen/storage before even building a coop...by then you should (in theory) have enough of other materials for upgrades to keep going while it does it's thing...otherwise it's a waste of time/resources trying to domesticate any earlier.

Like Barbalius says, set-up is the key, then manage as things grow.

I know this is a little long, but I've seen GameEdged manage 6 free-ranged, on a rotating level basis.

He gets eggs like crazy.

[RetroLlama]

Originally posted by NazT_DragN:

Originally posted by Mandinga:

This feature needs work. Its hard to survive and divide your food with even 2 chicken at the time.

When are you starting to domesticate?

-snip-

I suggest a fridge, 9 cooked steaks, a plant bed, and enough power/mass gen/storage before even building a coop...by then you should (in theory) have enough of other materials for upgrades to keep going while it does it's thing...otherwise it's a waste of time/resources trying to domesticate any earlier.

I just started getting the basics with 1500 power and 200 mass, two gennies, a mass fab, refinery, well (which I rarely leave on) and a weapons bench. What point do you think (as far as storage) should one have before getting a fridge/planter/coop?

[Timbazorg]

I dont have any problems surviving. As a meter of fact I'm doing really well.

My game so far: 400 mass, 1500 power. Mass generator, fridge, 3 generators, 1 mass extractor. Rifle lvl2 (damage), shotgun lvl2(damage), pistol lvl2(damage). 2 refineries (1 fully upgraded), 1 planter, and 1 unused coop.

I still believe the farm needs work. Threre is a problen when you have to give all your faund fruit and water of the day just to keep chickens alive.

[gigastephan]

I think one or two chickens are enough. (I have over 50 eggs)

[Luna plays]

Don't write animal housing works great, it is simply not true if you maintain it for longer than a few days you totally run out of food for the animals, even if you only have 2 chickens and upgraded the house and go collecting all the time.

Guys my chickens even disappeared by the last update and that means I lost the meat, it was not worth raising them, I lost about 4 stacks of berries and some water by it, had only a few eggs and they don't give that much protein even. And it is also a fact that you will have to decide if you eat the vegies rather yourself. Doing that and shooting wolfs might keep you easier alive, which doesn't make sense. It should be easier by the animal house, otherwise you don't need to build one at all.

AND NO IT DOES NOT WORK GREAT AT ALL! It needs improvement if you want to have animals for longer time. Right now I did even quit playing the game because of those balancing problems. I wait till the developer fixes it. So please don't write he would not need to because he will not know about the problems otherwise! You might not have the feeling that you need the chickens to survive if you go shooting wolfs, but that doesn't mean that there is no balancing needed. ;)
Don't compair game mechanics with real life, in almost no game that will work, what we need in a game is not to have to work or feel as if playing would be like working ;) We want to enjoy playing, right :)

[gigastephan]

Originally posted by Luna plays:

Don't write animal housing works great, it is simply not true if you maintain it for longer than a few days you totally run out of food for the animals, even if you only have 2 chickens and upgraded the house and go collecting all the time.

Guys my chickens even disappeared by the last update and that means I lost the meat, it was not worth raising them, I lost about 4 stacks of berries and some water by it, had only a few eggs and they don't give that much protein even. And it is also a fact that you will have to decide if you eat the vegies rather yourself. Doing that and shooting wolfs might keep you easier alive, which doesn't make sense. It should be easier by the animal house, otherwise you don't need to build one at all.

AND NO IT DOES NOT WORK GREAT AT ALL! It needs improvement if you want to have animals for longer time. Right now I did even quit playing the game because of those balancing problems. I wait till the developer fixes it. So please don't write he would not need to because he will not know about the problems otherwise! You might not have the feeling that you need the chickens to survive if you go shooting wolfs, but that doesn't mean that there is no balancing needed. ;)
Don't compair game mechanics with real life, in almost no game that will work, what we need in a game is not to have to work or feel as if playing would be like working ;) We want to enjoy playing, right :)

I feed them only tomatos. (And yes the seeds are very rare, I wish you can craft
seeds from tomatos)

[Shaemell]

A few times I have put the 8 chickens in a fully upgraded coop and allways had 1 disapear or die.

I feed them apples, berries and protein bars I find and obviously water.

I prefer to keep the tomatoes for myself and the eggs aremore than enough protein for me it seems.

Checking them once a day to make sure they are fed and watered is a brilliant tradeoff for what you get back IMHO

[Barbalius]

Originally posted by Luna plays:

Don't write animal housing works great, it is simply not true if you maintain it for longer than a few days you totally run out of food for the animals, even if you only have 2 chickens and upgraded the house and go collecting all the time.

Guys my chickens even disappeared by the last update and that means I lost the meat, it was not worth raising them, I lost about 4 stacks of berries and some water by it, had only a few eggs and they don't give that much protein even. And it is also a fact that you will have to decide if you eat the vegies rather yourself. Doing that and shooting wolfs might keep you easier alive, which doesn't make sense. It should be easier by the animal house, otherwise you don't need to build one at all.

AND NO IT DOES NOT WORK GREAT AT ALL!

Hi, when i said its work greats i meant aleast to me, i may doing something right or way suppose to work with.
I have raise about 20 chickens up to lvl 10 (none of em die) and never run out food (fruits or water for em) i got alot eggs, hight quality meat, fat and feathers and of course, alot poop :)

And here is few screenshots to probe it.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/112985497071619246/920A60CEF3F083BB87CDD73AB60AC76761A91E3B/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/112985497071619549/07AFFA1919259CF737F676C70D5F233C70DA9602/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/112985497071619395/C4484B9D2CC46DBD8533BD439FFB379024CB7ACA/

[Zuleica]

I got it to work just fine, i never have more than three in the coop at a time that way they don't run out of food and water before a day goes by.

I found you can actually store live chickens in storage crates :) so I have a crate load of them to replace them when they get to level 10.