programmer-S12 Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 I was playing yesterday, and I figured I had enough flax grain to start farming chickens, so I made a basket trap and went out to try to trap them. I got the chickens to trigger the trap, but when I pick it up, it goes into my main inventory as a normal reed chest, rather than my free basket slot. This kept happening, and I burned through many sticks and flax grain units, and I never got one chicken. I even had a basket destroyed by an ewe. I remember being able to use a basket trap just fine a long time ago when I was new to the game. I did a search online, and the auto AI thing said that the chance should be 50% for a successful capture, thus it seems very unlikely that this was simply caused by bad luck. It also said about issues #7270, and #8396, but they seem to be more to do with chickens not being attracted to traps, rather than setting them off and not being caught. I'd like to ask what the community thinks of this before I try again.
Dilan Rona Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 Maybe its bad luck, or maybe you got unlucky trying to catch a smart chicken. I had a similar problem myself more than once.
Tam Hawkins Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 I recently trapped a sheep baby and that worked fine. But traps can fail to catch. Did the traps say that they had an animal inside before you picked them up? 50% is a high chance when you are on an unlucky streak. I recently had one with metal quenching and lost 2 out of 14 toolheads on the 5% chance and another 4-6 out of the remaining 12 on the 8% chance. Sometimes chances just give you the worst they can give.
Scorpixel Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 (edited) I assume you already got them in a hole and are trying to move them elsewhere. If it's not too far it might just be easier to break them free and "steer" them up to your base by walking behind them, the only risk being wolves/bears spawning on the way back. Edited October 12 by Scorpixel
williams_482 Posted October 12 Report Posted October 12 The 50% chance is when the animal enters the trap. If you have a trap with the animal inside, that 50% die roll has already succeeded and you should be able to pick up the trap and relocate the animal with no further chance of escape. Did you have the open backpack slot active when you picked up the trap? You can select which backpack slot is active by pressing sprint (usually CRTL) and 1, 2, 3, or 4 , then whatever backpack slot object you pick up will go to that slot. It sounds like you might be picking up the basket in a normal hotbar slot. Instead of moving the item to an empty backpack slot or simply failing to pick it up, the game is releasing the animal and allowing you to pick up an item (a reed basket trap) that fits in a regular inventory or hotbar slot. 1
Vratislav Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 I believe the trap was actually empty. Could be stomped by another animal, or just not successfull catch. When the trap is full, it shall be shaking and help note shall says "contains frightened hen/rooster". Also, I was recently playing with TerrainSlabs mode and I have realized that if the trap is put on the slab, or if they are slabs around, I was not able to catch chicken successfully. It might be bad luck or just combined mechanics that do not count with each other, for sure then I put trap on a flat area of full blocks. What I remember, that also in slopes the success rate seems lower, as animals tend to stomp on the trap from the upper blocks...
WyvernHammer Posted October 13 Report Posted October 13 I recently went through the process of capturing my chickens, and I had 3 smashed traps and 6 or so false catches (the trap was sprung, but nothing was inside them) by the time I managed to catch a breeding pair. So it could just be bad luck. 1
programmer-S12 Posted October 16 Author Report Posted October 16 Update: Ok. I managed to capture a few. It seems I was just unlucky or something. Thank you everyone. I haven't managed to capture a roster yet, but I now have access to hen eggs ready for my second winter. On 10/12/2026 at 9:20 PM, Scorpixel said: I assume you already got them in a hole and are trying to move them elsewhere. If it's not too far it might just be easier to break them free and "steer" them up to your base by walking behind them, the only risk being wolves/bears spawning on the way back. I made my chicken enclosure somewhere where that isn't really practical.
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