JessieImproved Posted March 23, 2025 Report Posted March 23, 2025 Hi everyone, thought I would share my chicken coop. It's designed to use as little feed as possible to cycle chicken generations. I have a coop house and a run area with two troughs. (I use the chicken feed mod, but that's not important to the design). Inside the coop there are currently 3 hen boxes. There are upper half slabs that open up to a 2 block deep trench below. Only the baby chicks can run down here, and then they can't get out. This means they lose access to the feeding troughs in the run. When the baby chicks grow up, I open the trap doors in the back and let them up. Then I close the trap doors so they can't get back down, and start the next generation. 16
idiomcritter Posted March 25, 2025 Report Posted March 25, 2025 interesting design. so the chics wander out of the coop after hatching, and then wander over to the 2 block drop trying to follow the parents into the coop? genius 2
Krougal Posted March 31, 2025 Report Posted March 31, 2025 So this is interesting, but I'm not sure how I would go about building it. Maybe because I haven't played in a while. Are these chiseled slabs?
JessieImproved Posted March 31, 2025 Author Report Posted March 31, 2025 No, they are just sandstone cobblestone slabs, put on the top half of the block, so there is a half block gap.
Krougal Posted March 31, 2025 Report Posted March 31, 2025 Maybe a screenshot of the underfloor? I am having trouble visualizing the drop.
JessieImproved Posted March 31, 2025 Author Report Posted March 31, 2025 Image 1: A view of the baby chicken "drop". Image 2: My player access to the drop area - in the back of the coop. Image 3: A view of the drop area from the other side, inside the drop area. Note that the blocks above me are full cobblestone blocks, but the two up front are top slabs. Image 4: Me looking up at the trapdoors inside the coop from underneath. 4
JessieImproved Posted April 15, 2025 Author Report Posted April 15, 2025 The second feed trough mirrors the one you can see in the picture on the other side of the gate entrance. It's symmetrical.
Kreeate Posted April 16, 2025 Report Posted April 16, 2025 (edited) How do the new generation grown up chicks get back into the coop? I know you mentioned you open the trapdoors for them, but I can't see any stairs or anything for them to reach the trapdoors? Maybe I'm missing something obvious? Edited April 21, 2025 by Kreeate
JessieImproved Posted April 30, 2025 Author Report Posted April 30, 2025 I don't have this world anymore @Kreeate, but if you look at Image 4 in my post from March 31, I'm looking at the underneath of the trapdoors, in the area where the chicks grow up. What you can't see in the picture is that there is another dirt block right beside the door so the chickens can hop up.
SeaWarriorSon Posted April 30, 2025 Report Posted April 30, 2025 Really nice, that might save me a lot of feed
Thorfinn Posted May 1, 2025 Report Posted May 1, 2025 The easier way, of course, is to just implement the slabs into the back wall.
Q_Tip Posted June 12, 2025 Report Posted June 12, 2025 (edited) How did you put those slabs like that? NVM, figured it out. Entering step is ground level, floor is leveled to log archways. Edited June 14, 2025 by Q_Tip
Echo Weaver Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 A bit of a necro, but I reproduced this build identically as far as I can tell, and I cannot get the grown chickens OUT of the basement of the henhouse. I've tried giving them blocks to jump up, I've tried giving them stairs, and I've tried enlarging the hole in the floor that is open. The latter resulted in all my existing chickens falling down, so now they're all in the basement. The panicked chickens seem to run up 2 blocks and then change direction and jump back into the basement no matter what I do, and then don't walk out if left alone either, even if there's food in the troughs. Is there some technique that works for shooing these guys back up?
Krougal Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 Last time I tried, going through the door, opening the trapdoors and chasing them from the opposite corner did work, although it was a bit fiddly. I'm thinking maybe a redesign would be more efficient. Like instead of the drop, make the back wall the slabs at same level, so you chase them into a holding pen. A door leading back into the main pen and you can go chase them out again easier. Does it make sense the way I am describing it?
JessieImproved Posted August 16, 2025 Author Report Posted August 16, 2025 6 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said: A bit of a necro, but I reproduced this build identically as far as I can tell, and I cannot get the grown chickens OUT of the basement of the henhouse. I've tried giving them blocks to jump up, I've tried giving them stairs, and I've tried enlarging the hole in the floor that is open. The latter resulted in all my existing chickens falling down, so now they're all in the basement. The panicked chickens seem to run up 2 blocks and then change direction and jump back into the basement no matter what I do, and then don't walk out if left alone either, even if there's food in the troughs. Is there some technique that works for shooing these guys back up? This design is not really compatible with "existing chickens". The idea is to raise a single generation at a time. No chickens upstairs when you get ready to bring the new adults up. I cull the previous generation once all the eggs have hatched. Also, maybe the troughs are too far away. Not sure. 1
Echo Weaver Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 29 minutes ago, JessieImproved said: This design is not really compatible with "existing chickens". The idea is to raise a single generation at a time. No chickens upstairs when you get ready to bring the new adults up. I cull the previous generation once all the eggs have hatched. Also, maybe the troughs are too far away. Not sure. Ah, I see. Hmm.
Thorfinn Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 You could easily build a new coop for the each new generation until you decide to cull the older generations. Not sure why you would want your gen 0 mixed in with gen 4 anyway.
Echo Weaver Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 12 minutes ago, Thorfinn said: You could easily build a new coop for the each new generation until you decide to cull the older generations. Not sure why you would want your gen 0 mixed in with gen 4 anyway. The generation mixing or not is not that big a deal. I haven't thought hard enough about it to commit. Probably I'll cull the older gen. I'm not sure this matters, though, does it? Now I have two gens all mixed together in the basement, and I STILL can't get them back up to the ground floor. They run around in a panicked circle, run up the incline toward the ground floor, then jump off back into the basement. I've used stairs and not, and I've given them a large enough gap in the floor that I can walk through. I'm missing something.
Krougal Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 (edited) @Echo Weaver Well the generation culling is kinda the point of this design. As far as your problem, easiest solution is probably from the door you use to get in, make a fenced run back to the pen and chase them out that way. @JessieImproved I think the troughs are good, at least at the distance I guesstimated them from your SS. You may need to go into the pen to scare the chicks down, but it is good to be able to fill the troughs without spooking the hen when she is broody. Edited August 16, 2025 by Krougal
Echo Weaver Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 6 minutes ago, Krougal said: @Echo Weaver Well the generation culling is kinda the point of this design. No, the point of the design was to not waste all your feed on chicks.
Krougal Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 18 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said: No, the point of the design was to not waste all your feed on chicks. How dare you use logic on me just because it is stated clearly in the title! Yeah, ok, you got me there. Still, it's good to do both. Why would you want your old gen still taking up food and breeding? 1
Thorfinn Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 35 minutes ago, Krougal said: Why would you want your old gen still taking up food and breeding? Breeding is a problem. Eggs are fine until you get slammed by egg production. Then start culling. Easiest to just keep the rooster 10(?) blocks away.
Krougal Posted August 16, 2025 Report Posted August 16, 2025 4 minutes ago, Thorfinn said: Breeding is a problem. Eggs are fine until you get slammed by egg production. Then start culling. Easiest to just keep the rooster 10(?) blocks away. Oh, yeah, I guess if you just want eggs then there is no need for a breeding program.
Echo Weaver Posted August 17, 2025 Report Posted August 17, 2025 2 hours ago, Thorfinn said: Breeding is a problem. Eggs are fine until you get slammed by egg production. Then start culling. Easiest to just keep the rooster 10(?) blocks away. 1 hour ago, Krougal said: Oh, yeah, I guess if you just want eggs then there is no need for a breeding program. This is far more thought than I have put into the question. I think I vaguely was thinking along Thorfinn's logic, but really I was just trying to get the feed-efficiency thing working before I decided what I was doing with older generations. I DID actually get that working after more trial-and-error. Shooing the birds up through a hole in the floor was just not happening. However, it turned out I could shoo them out a hole in the WALL. So I dug down a block on the outside of the wall and put in a vertical trap door through the basement wall, and Bob's your uncle.
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