How often must I feed my chickens?

[Jaggid Edje]

I just got my first couple of chickens hatched in my game, and threw some barley in for them. But I'm wondering how often I need to make sure to return to feed them?

...I googled this, and I found all kinds of information about chicken farming but not one site mentioned just how often or how much chickens will eat. Took forever just to find one place that even answered whether you can throw the food as a stack or need to do it one at a time.

Any help is appreciated.

[jonnin]

I have not done chickens, but assuming they work like everything else, then
- they don't need food. Food may heal them if injured (I think it does, but usually if something gets hit its dead so I don't recall). Food lets them breed (here, I guess, lay eggs?)
- you can throw in a stack, they will use it slowly.
- the lox and boar I had ate as much or more often than my character does, so every 10 min or so they would take food. I don't know that they needed this much (again, its required to breed but not to exist).
there may not be any exact timers etc for this. That is the best I can offer.

[FissionChips]

They won't die without food, they just won't lay eggs. They'll eat when they're hungry, so you can just leave food down, but at a certain population/eggs on ground size they'll stop laying. They need space to lay, which means managing their numbers or making sure the eggs fall far enough to not be counted in their area.

The time between feeding and hungry - I've no idea specifically. A couple dozen can remove a stack of seeds in just a day or two. But unless you're cheesing the farming you need to clear out eggs regularly anyway so you'll be checking anyway. If you do want to cheese it there's info out there.

[Jaggid Edje]

Thanks guys, it's good to know they won't die if I miss any feedings. That's the main thing I was worried about. I'm not doing a no-portal run, but I also don't build them all over the place so can be 'away' for several game days at a time.

Appreciate the responses.

Edit: Just got my first batch of newly laid eggs. I shouldn't be this excited about raising chickens...

[FissionChips]

I haven't tested but given how other farming works the only progress that should be made while you're away is that warm eggs will hatch. They'll probably also become hungry again. Probably best to feed them when you come back for some time, and not bother before you leave since that'll just be a waste of food.

Last time I checked chickens will eat any seeds, making barley an expensive way to go - carrots, turnips, and onions all produce 3 seeds per plant. They'll even eat tree seeds, so if you have them saved up rather than planting a forest or throwing them away then you have stacks of ready chicken feed.

[Jaggid Edje]

I have an entire reinforced chest full of flour right now and something like 16 stacks of extra barley, that's why I was feeding them the barley. I may have gotten carried away with my barley farm and windmills...
(Also flax....I have way too much flax).

[knighttemplar1960]

I haven't tried my hand at chickens yet but if they work the same as every thing else they will eat once every 10 real time minutes with the first one for that day being right after sun rise they have a 33% chance to reproduce once per day (checked every 30 seconds after being fed) if a player is within 64 meters and there is room in the enclosure. Animals will not path to food that is farther than 10 meters away from them so if you have an extra large barn you may have to drop food on both ends.

If no player is within 64 meters when they eat they will not reproduce. Its best to drop just enough food to feed each animal so that you don't waste any resources.

[Jaggid Edje]

They seem to lay eggs more frequently. I started with the 4 chickens and have already gotten 8 chicken eggs (still the same game day).

[knighttemplar1960]

They may have altered things for chickens or it may be a bug. Game designers do like to reuse code where they can to save on programming time.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

They may have altered things for chickens or it may be a bug. Game designers do like to reuse code where they can to save on programming time.

Maybe with chickens it's just 'lay an egg' every 10 minutes, instead of just a 'chance'. Unlike other animals, you still have to also wait several days total, for them to hatch and then mature, before you get another chicken out of out.

[Pantstron]

Just feed when they're hugry most likely once a day should suffice for constant egg makery

[Vyktor]

They eat dandelions - useful if you've built up a load of them, and other seeds too.

[reiureya]

Originally posted by FissionChips:

I haven't tested but given how other farming works the only progress that should be made while you're away is that warm eggs will hatch. They'll probably also become hungry again. Probably best to feed them when you come back for some time, and not bother before you leave since that'll just be a waste of food.

Last time I checked chickens will eat any seeds, making barley an expensive way to go - carrots, turnips, and onions all produce 3 seeds per plant. They'll even eat tree seeds, so if you have them saved up rather than planting a forest or throwing them away then you have stacks of ready chicken feed.

Thank you so much. I was so worried they would die, while I was mining for copper. Bless you for a very detailed explanation. ^.^ enjoy the points from a very grateful reader.

[Kursor1]

All the main points seem to have been covered, so just a small extra note- chickens, like all tamed animals, will continue to eat while you're away from camp if there's food available, but like all tames they will not breed while youre away. Existing young will grow up, but no new ones will be born. So I recommend not feeding your critters any more food than you'll be around for them to eat.
And, of course, bear in mind the population limits of all critters and dont feed them more than needed to fill that limit unless theyre in an autobreeder. Boars you can hunt for if thats your pleasure, wolves can keep you in meat and hides with a couple of pens of them (8 wolf capacity between them) or maybe even just a single pen if theyre 2-stars, and loxes are easier to just hunt unless you build an autobreeder for them (which is not a casual exercise), but for chickens an autobreeder is almost mandatory, particularly if you're making the omelettes. Askvin have a strong argument for an autobreeder imo, but you can breed them like wolves if you prefer. A lox autobreeder has an advantage in that a lox pit can be used as a skill trainer for whatever weapon skill amuses you in addition to providing food. Just turn on team damage and go to town with the weakest version of the chosen weapon so they last longer. And if they're hungry enough you can feed them just before they die and they'll heal to full instantly so you can do it all again before either finishing them off for food or just going off to do something else.

[Bored Peon]

People used to suggest feeding them in Troll Caves. It is a great idea to keep them safe, but a horrible idea when it comes time for eating and laying eggs because when you leave the cave the timers in the cave freeze.

As others have pointed out you should only feed them when you plan on being in the vicinity of the base. So I would feed them the same time you replant your gardens/fields or you built yourself a fishing pond (catch and release yeilds possible extra loot each time they are caught, good for iron ore and soft tissue.) It would also work for a "high traffic base" meaning you are constantly coming and going.

[brown29knight]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

They may have altered things for chickens or it may be a bug. Game designers do like to reuse code where they can to save on programming time.

Maybe with chickens it's just 'lay an egg' every 10 minutes, instead of just a 'chance'. Unlike other animals, you still have to also wait several days total, for them to hatch and then mature, before you get another chicken out of out.

Each hen has a breeding chance, but that chance is checked on every other hen in the area. As you will usually have 6-8 hens breeding at a time, that's 5-7 breeding chances per hen.
Which is often enough chances to make every hen produce an egg every 10 min until you reach the limits.