Professor Dragon Posted July 30, 2025 Report Posted July 30, 2025 (edited) Hi Everyone, I thought I'd show off my Professor Dragon's Chicken Coop, which is my first "proper build." (Barring the usual house/cellars/smithing rooms etc.) Also to talk about the design process, what worked and what didn't. It is nowhere near as fancy as some of the builds here (kind of a hard act to follow, honestly), and it is all built without chiselling (with one exception), using common blocks and no more than copper tools. THE GOAL "Nice looking" - rustic farmhouse style Raise chickens from wild to Gen 10 with no fuss Easy egg collection and feeding No despawning due to no light Build with no more than copper tools No (or little) chiselling REQUIREMENTS Small foyer entry which meets "cellar" requirements as a safe space Foyer has basic storage vessel, reed basket and tools "Airlock" for chicken access to prevent escapees Generation sorting system for chicks and looping (Spoiler: This plan failed miserably) Multiple feeding troughs Nest boxes far enough away so that can feed main chickens without disturbing brooding hens Multiple nest boxes, with room for expansion Use natural light to prevent despawning (I heard that is an issue) Locked up rooster to prevent fights and accidental death Spawn proof Looks like it could be a real hen house Expansion for outside pens Avoid mods Minimum/no chiselling Copper tools (chiefly a saw) max THE DESIGN A "T" shape. Can stand and fill trough at the foot of the T, and infinitely expand nest boxes along the cap of the T. Pine - I like the look, and it is easy to farm a lot Heavy use of "pine grated trapdoors" for light in ceiling and walls Thatch roof - rustic look, and I have grass Fenced enclosure. Will "let hens out" when reach Gen 10 and have sufficient to spare for decoration Self sorting room - a chiselled door to let chicks go through, attracted to a filled trough, where they fall down a few blocks and can't re-enter. But can loop this room back to the main area for each generation BUILDING Built during winter - there were weather issues Went up pretty smoothly otherwise LESSONS LEARNT 1) Even though I was in full fur gear, building in winter was harsh. Build in spring/summer. I ended up fully enclosing the build in several massive rammed earth "rooms" (14x14xheight) so that I could work. I then deconstructed the rooms at the end and filled in the missing bits. In any weather Day or night In any rift condition (bar temporal storms) Was this overkill? Probably yes. On the one hand, it did save me a lot of trouble from all of the annoyances and let me finish it on my own schedule. On the other hand, it added time and resource requirements, and removing the temporary rooms with a flint shovel took surprisingly longer than expected. So I would do this again for a small, complex build I would wait until Spring/Summer next time for a massive straight forward build. 2) Breeding chickens in the base game is a right, royal, pain. Use a mod. Despite all of my very cunning planning, the basic design falls over because of hyper-sensitive chickens in the base game. You can't go near the nesting boxes using the neat little trap doors in the wall sides, because they freak out. (They can sense through walls also). Even though you can fill the feeding troughs without disturbing them, as soon as they walk near the troughs to feed, they freak out. I don't like the vanilla game implementation of freak out chickens - it is completely unlike the real chicken raising experience that I have had I think from Gen 1 they should basically stop the ol' freak out, not Gen 10. Even though I try to minimise mods, this one is a life saver and I regard as absolutely essential if you want a "normal" chicken raising experience: Chicken Sit: https://mods.vintagestory.at/chickensit 3) (My) Automated Generation Sorting was a complete bust. But it didn't matter. For whatever reason, new chicks were not reliably drawn to the trough visible through the small hole, to fall into the sorting system. Maybe it is because I had the "hole" extruding out with a border to be fancy. Anyway, it didn't matter. Simpler methods - going in and boppin' chickens on the head - worked just fine My life changed once I put on the "ChickenSit" mod. No, seriously, I can't stress this enough - swallow your pride and install this. 4) Lights are expensive. But you need them. My "natural light" design was constructed to avoid needing artificial light. Did it work? I never had the confidence to try it. You want to enter your coop at night to manage it. You need light. As the coop itself does NOT count as a room, you don't want dark corners and things spawning in there with you, even if it doesn't bother the chickens So I installed light. It was more expensive than I thought, because I didn't have the lanterns to spare at this point. As I had an effective bee farm, I put down a lot of candles. Candles work, but "spoil the mood." You cannot picture leaving masses of candles in a real coop - it would burn down in short order. Lamps are needed, and will be added when they can be afforded. You want light in the coop - so much activity happens at night when "nothing else is going on." 5) You don't need a fancy design. Unless you want it. Am I happy with how it all turned out? A resounding yes. I have a great looking chicken coop, which met most of my requirements. Plus I had fun and learnt a lot. Do you need a super fancy chicken coop to raise chickens? No, you don't. A big room, a light, a double gate and you're done. 6) It's never finished. But it is until the next point. Still to do are: Lantern lighting Exterior farm pens and groundwork detailing Release the chickens! (Some of them anyway, for decoration) SCREENSHOTS Big gray boxes - weather and drifter proofing during winter. The failed - but nicely chiselled - chicken sorter. The other side of the failed sorter. Feeding room under construction. I would end up adding eight troughs in total, which seems right. This way it consumes one stack of grain in a feed, and seems to keep them happy. The great unboxing! Snow falls at odd angles when let fall onto a roof. Fairer weather. The finished coop. View from on high. (Sorry about the rain.) The foyer entry. 2 x Glass panels in roof rather than trap doors, to preserve "cellar" status as a bolt-hole. Just the essentials. The roof from inside. Not too bad! A rooster gets his own special room. Exterior beauty shot. The closed trapdoors contain the foyer. HOW? I mean, really, how has this guy appeared here? (Different rooster). Their escape ability is just like real farm animals. I have a theory that some of the chicks when they hatch are spawning outside (???). Final beauty shot. CHICKEN PRODUCTS I wasn't thinking too much about the end results of all of these chickens - I was mainly interested in getting to Gen 10 and having a fun project. But thoughts on the chicken products themselves. Feathers are great. They produce a LOT and Survival Goods Traders buy them. Eggs. Not great, but okay. You get a lot, but so far it is not consistent. Most go to compost, unfortunately. Bones. Great for bones. Chicken meat. It is okay, but sheep beat it hands down. You get a mass of good red meat from a sheep. You need to kill an umpteen chickens to get good meals. Kind of not worth the effort. Let's see what happens longer term. CONCLUSION There you go. I hope you enjoyed the thoughts behind this little build. Definitely worth having some chickens around for the homely feel and fathers. Professor Dragon. EDIT Resized attachments to save space. If anyone wants to see full size, just message me. Some final thoughts, now that some time has passed. My next chicken coop will be sealed like a "Room." This will negate cold effects while tending to chickens. Get a FULL winter clothing set. I was missing one piece at maximum warmth, and having that was a game changer. I can now build in full winter, only occasionally needing to pop near a fire for warmth. The sorting system was a complete failure. Use the mod "ChickenSit" instead until they are Gen 10, or just "whack 'em" manually. Edited October 17, 2025 by Professor Dragon Attachements resized to save space. Ask if required. 7 1
Never Jhonsen Posted July 30, 2025 Report Posted July 30, 2025 I love how you type. It makes it easier to read long blocks of text And that chicken coop looks great! Sorry to hear that chicken sorter failed Oh well, better luck next time 3
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