Hatching a Dead Chick

[intorpere]

I hate resorting to DevCommands, but this would have been infuriating without it. I couldn't find chickens anywhere in Mistlands, so finally just looked it up. Doh, Haldor sells them, and turns out I have just enough gold to buy two. So I read about how I need to keep them warm and all that, and built a chicken coop.

The eggs need to be really close to the fire, it seems. Any more than 1 tile away, and they were cold. So I even built a barrier between the fire and the eggs, just in case. Still, as soon as the egg hatched, it exploded into feathers and meat. Even with the fire on the other side of a low wall, it was too close and instantly killed the chick, apparently? Talk about a money sink, yikes. Without cheats, that's crazy harsh.

[intorpere]

Part of the problem being that I couldn't place the egg where I wanted. I had to throw it a few times to get it to land in the right spot. A little too close to the barrier, but good enough. Surely the devs wouldn't make them die that easily, given how expensive they are...

[Faceplant]

Chick can spawn in random locations sometimes. I often have them walking around outside after spawning through a block wall. I also pick up eggs outside the wall.

One tile seems extremely short distance. I only use the hearths, but I haven't found the maximum distance from that yet. I have two hearths on my main floor, and the chicken coop in the "basement" under the hearths. The total space under there is probably 12x12, and there is nowhere that they are not warm. The bottom of the hearths are 3 blocks high, so they're definitely overhead.

[intorpere]

It would be nice if the game explained some of these details. It seemed like it had to be one tile, but the problem might be that I was confused by a heat delay. They're cold when first dropped, but might have warmed up if I left them there? Maybe they warm up faster, if they're closer? Maybe I just didn't leave the eggs on the ground long enough, 2-3 tiles away.

[Faceplant]

It does take a bit to change to warm, so that may have been the issue.

I have hens and eggs stashed several places now, just in case.

For me, though, the cost of the eggs is not nearly as important as the distance to replace them. I'm more than half a world away from the trader (I think), and not using map or portal, so, just getting to and from the trader to get the eggs took many game days of sailing, and probably just as many game days waiting on weather.

[FissionChips]

They take a bit of time to say warm. They also need shelter or they remain "too cold", which isn't explained anywhere and is telling the player the wrong problem.

My first pair of eggs I got frustrated and just chucked them on the hearth surround in my kitchen. That was after they told me they we "too cold" when I threw them into a bonfire. I portaled back from somewhere to exploding chicken sounds .

[kelsobluebane]

I think there are about 6 heat sources you can use, I'd probably hatch chickens in your kitchen. As that's a place least likely for your fires to go out. Cook up loads of stuff for 30 minutes whilst waiting.

[intorpere]

If you hatch them in your kitchen, isn't that where they'll have to live? There doesn't seem to be any way to move them, once they hatch?

[FissionChips]

If you're just starting out then chucking them somewhere to build up a larger egg cache while you build a barn for permanent raising, yeah the kitchen is fine. Then you just kill the chickens in your kitchen.

[TVMAN]

I built a barn for mine and use the hanging brazier as my heat source. Works like a charm, and the only problem I have is that sometimes eggs clip through the chicken pen I built in my barn.

[Viceroy Günther von Lichler]

The eggs need a roof over them or in game terms they need to be considered indoors to hatch successfully. Then you can have the fire pretty far away too.
I made a coop with halfwall fences around in and a area that was considered indoors to yeet eggs there, but if i were to rebuild it i would just make the entire thing a house so they would hatch automatically.

[jonnin]

isnt a hanging brazier a fire, and difficult to climb into and die?

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by jonnin:

isnt a hanging brazier a fire, and difficult to climb into and die?

Is that something that you make a priority, things that you can climb into and die easily? :-)

Seriously though, the brazier seems like a good solution. Maybe a bit fancy for a chicken coop, but a good solution. :-)

[FissionChips]

I wanted to protect my chickens and experiment with black marble - so I have a black marble chicken barn 😅. Stuck a regular campfire in a chimney at one end, it heats half of the barn - half new chickens, half eggs for me. I had some trouble early on with all of them hugging the door and so not breeding, but thinning their numbers and making sure seeds go dead center helped.

[SertanDoom]

Originally posted by FissionChips:

They take a bit of time to say warm. They also need shelter or they remain "too cold", which isn't explained anywhere and is telling the player the wrong problem.

My first pair of eggs I got frustrated and just chucked them on the hearth surround in my kitchen. That was after they told me they we "too cold" when I threw them into a bonfire. I portaled back from somewhere to exploding chicken sounds .

Popcorn chicken :D

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Originally posted by jonnin:

isnt a hanging brazier a fire, and difficult to climb into and die?

Is that something that you make a priority, things that you can climb into and die easily? :-)

Seriously though, the brazier seems like a good solution. Maybe a bit fancy for a chicken coop, but a good solution. :-)

Of course. I pride myself on being efficient, including burning myself to death, and the brazier is just too much trouble, it takes forever because you only get smoke inhalation, but no fire damage even if you can manage to climb up onto it, which takes a bit of hopping around. The hearth or bonfire really are the way to go, with solid fire damage and smoke on top of it. Trust me, if you need to set yourself on fire, save some time and energy and try a bonfire instead.