Chickens and Generations

[TamTroll]

So from what i know, Chickens will stop being afraid of the player after around 10 generations of breeding.

Problem is, as far as i can tell at least, i only have one rooster, a wild caught one that helped start my whole farm.


Currently my chicken pen has a bunch of wild caught chickens and generation 1 chickens.  I'm not sure if I've seen any generation 2 ones yet.

If i were to remove all the wild-caught hens and leave only generation 1 hens and the wild rooster, would they produce generation 2 hens?

If i remove all the gen 1 hens, would i then get gen 3 hens?
 

Basically, could that one wild-caught rooster take me all the way to generation 10? or would i need to wait until i get newborn roosters?

[Bumber]

AFAIK, only the mother matters for domestication.

Also, roosters will kill each other, so you might want to just kill any male chicks if you don't need the feathers. (You can move them somewhere separate with baskets, otherwise.)

Edited June 13, 2024 by Bumber

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Bumber said:

AFAIK, only the mother matters for domestication.

You are correct!

1 hour ago, Bumber said:

Also, roosters will kill each other, so you might want to just kill any male chicks if you don't need the feathers.

Really? I don't think I've ever seen them do this. Then again, this might also explain how I seem to get so many pullets/hens from a batch of chicks Although I don't recall finding any rooster bodies in the pen either. I'll have to pay more attention next time I really get around to farming chickens. I know my usual strategy to wait until the next generation grows up and then butcher the previous generation, making sure to leave one rooster alive to breed with the new hens. That way I get both meat and feathers!

[TamTroll]

1 hour ago, Bumber said:

Also, roosters will kill each other, so you might want to just kill any male chicks if you don't need the feathers. (You can move them somewhere separate with baskets, otherwise.)

now THAT explains why i only have one rooster.


Survival of the fittest i say!

[Maelstrom]

16 hours ago, Bumber said:

AFAIK, only the mother matters for domestication.

Also, roosters will kill each other, so you might want to just kill any male chicks if you don't need the feathers. (You can move them somewhere separate with baskets, otherwise.)

Or let the corpse despawn.

[TamTroll]

i haven't seen any corpses in there, so i'm suspecting i just legitimately haven't had any roosters born yet. then again i don't go into the pen too often, since it slows down egg-hatching.


What i'll probably do is stop feeding them, wait until all current eggs hatch, and then go in and kill off any generation 0 hens. if i see generation 2 hens, i might kill off the gen 1 hens too.

[Maelstrom]

I've seen streamers and utoobers have difficulty killing a pen full of mixed generation chickens.  For the future I suggest separating the offspring in a separate pen from the parents so that generational lines aren't as difficult to cull.

[Thorfinn]

I usually don't bother with the roosters because they will never get enough generations to make a difference, but when I do, I often find myself doing like I occasionally have to do with cattle IRL -- let a few of them (ideally 1)  out into another corral where I can move them into individual sorting stalls.

Pigs are really easy to do this with, as the boars will immediately chase you once the piglets arrive, and eventually, so will the sows.

[Bumber]

On 6/14/2024 at 8:08 AM, Maelstrom said:

Or let the corpse despawn.

I'm always worried that they'll somehow manage to kill each other simultaneously, resulting in no roosters.

[Maelstrom]

Separate one out in a second pen for backup?

[Ro Huis]

several generations later. All Gen 1 with not single Gen 2

 

[Professor Dragon]

On 6/14/2024 at 9:46 AM, LadyWYT said:

You are correct!

Really? I don't think I've ever seen them do this. Then again, this might also explain how I seem to get so many pullets/hens from a batch of chicks Although I don't recall finding any rooster bodies in the pen either. I'll have to pay more attention next time I really get around to farming chickens. I know my usual strategy to wait until the next generation grows up and then butcher the previous generation, making sure to leave one rooster alive to breed with the new hens. That way I get both meat and feathers!

I have seen them do this, when I was getting my lot to Gen 10. Roosters can fight to the death, and will leave the usual drops, going down to a skeleton if you leave it too long.
This is why I separated out a back-up one into his own secure pen.
And I employed the same method you did - kill all prior generations. Feed the remainders to the gills. (Beaks?)