Barn Design: Will animals eat through a fence? Struggling with animals escaping when I go in to add food to the trough.

[Haltingpoint]

I may just need to design my pen differently so they have more space to run away and then have a double airlock with the gate. But ideally I could place the trough just outside the pen in the main walking strip in my barn and drop the food in, and let them eat through the fence. Curious what the behavior is and if it is the same for all animals.

[ArgentLuna]

Place it far enough away that they cant jump the fence from it but its still in reach of you to use from outside the fence or the other one i use is its embeded in the ground under the fence so is accessable that way aswell (use this one a lot with the Rams/ early gen sheep). You'll want airlocks in the main walkway espescially with pigs as they just love to phase thru fences anyway.

Edited December 7, 2025 by ArgentLuna

[Maelstrom]

One block inbetween trough and fence is sufficient from keeping animals from hopping the fence.   Also make sure stone or dirt is not used in the walls of the enclosure as some animals (like sheep) will use the stone/dirt blocks to effectively climb out of the pen.

[Venusgate]

I double-stack the fence, and either place the gate far enough from the toughs that they dont hop over the game (but close enough to reach the troughs) - or place access on North/South of the barn, and put a feeding gate on top of a fence.

[Professor Dragon]

On 12/7/2025 at 11:11 AM, ArgentLuna said:

Place it far enough away that they cant jump the fence from it but its still in reach of you to use from outside the fence or the other one i use is its embeded in the ground under the fence so is accessable that way aswell (use this one a lot with the Rams/ early gen sheep). You'll want airlocks in the main walkway espescially with pigs as they just love to phase thru fences anyway.

I also place the trough perpendicular and  UNDER the fence. Or at least I do if I just want to raise sheep without getting bopped. You can access it from outside, and they can eat from inside, all without being murderfied or them escaping. I've tried any number of other things (gates, slabs on top of fences, ladders, trapdoors on a pit ...), but this works and is easy to implement.

Aesthetically it looks naff. So I'd do something different for my "presentation" pens.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Maelstrom]

I just throw a chute on top of the trough and load a chest with the food to be doled out (usually only 2 or 3 stacks of food).  This takes a lot of the tedium off filling multiple troughs if you have a larger herd (like retaining 5 sows to create repetitive pigsplosions.)

Edited December 9, 2025 by Maelstrom

[Professor Dragon]

6 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I just throw a chute on top of the trough and load a chest with the food to be doled out (usually only 2 or 3 stacks of food).  This takes a lot of the tedium off filling multiple troughs if you have a larger herd (like retaining 5 sows to create repetitive pigsplosions.)

That is  . . . genius.
And to think that I've been running around filling 10 - 20 troughs by hand, in a big circle, as they empty all this time! ! ! !

I think this is because unlike Minecraft, you don't tend to think in terms of "automation" (Redstone), because that doesn't really feel like a core mechanic in VS - apart from in minor, intended ways such as hoppers and chests to querns.

You also need to be rich enough to able to afford such gizmos, and for much of early playthroughs, every ingot is going somewhere else.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Maelstrom]

A straight chute is 2 ingots I think?  Another for the chest.   In my experience by the time I've got more than 1 trough, I have so much copper that a few ingots for chutes and ladd..err chests is more of a cost of time than material. 

In my current world I've got one trough, a pair o' piggu's and about 2 stacks of medium grade copper ore chunks to process.   Haven't processed it due to storage issues while working on getting a helve hammer to pound out the plates for copious nail and strip production.

[Professor Dragon]

It's funny the mental traps that the early game conditions you to.

Even late game, I will often harvest grass before putting another block down, so as not to "waste" it. And that's when I'm using steel tools and standing in a field of grass that I don't need. I actually need to be on the lookout for this, in order to save time. "Just place the block."

[Maelstrom]

I haven't processed that copper because most of it will become plates.   I'll wait for that helve hammer thankyouverymuch.  I've been making bronze tools as needed.   Still using stone shovels, axes and knives.   Heck I didn't make a falx until I had burned through three bronze pickaxes.  That falx was decimated in a night of apocalyptic rift activity harvesting drifters.   Soooooo. many. drifters.  Never had apocalyptic rift activity for an entire night before.  

[RatKing0]

I have two sets of gates back to back, and only ever have one gate open at a time so nothing escapes. Later on I added hoppers above the troughs so I don't have to fill them daily, and am able to reach the hoppers from outside of the pen