Eggs for everybody?

[Totentag]

In the real world, all bird species (and virtually all reptile species) will lay unfertilized eggs under the proper circumstances. For birds, those circumstances are really quite easy to achieve if you mean to. Pairing (including two or more females, no males required), nesting, and environmental triggers including light and temperature are all that's required.

So, my suggestion is a simple enough one. Can we have domesticated birds laying unfertilized eggs? I would assume for the sake of balance, these eggs would have various downsides over the incredible'tude that is chicken eggs such as a much slower laying cycle or specific environmental requirements as noted above.

[Klomster]

I have a colony right now with a whole lot of chickens.
Like... a ton of them.
They eat so much...... sooo much *PTSD*

Anyway, i don't know what the circumstances are, but some of the eggs come out as unfertilized, it might be the severe inbreeding going on because i'm not changing the rooster...

Regardless, it can be done.
I just don't know how.

I agree that eggs should come more often, especially with chickens. It's the reason we got them domesticated in the first place.

A balancing thing could be that unfertilized eggs take longer to lay.

But honestly, chickens eat so much so to just get simple food from them seems reasonable to me.

[Totentag]

For what it's worth, IRL chickens will average about one unfertilized egg per day under ideal conditions. Ostriches, on the other end of the spectrum, lay a clutch of seven to ten eggs at a time and will average about forty in a laying cycle that spans from January to June or July.

[patoka]

i'm not sure what you guys' suggestion is, but all birds and reptiles already do lay eggs and as far as i know it is part of quite some players' strategy to tame lizards, make them multiply and then essentially making them aggressive chicken (because they can attack enemies)
i dont know how good of a strategy that is, especially with the recent nerfs to animals. i never bothered with any animals aside from chicken though because they seem to be the only ones efficient enough for anything.

[Klomster]

What OP is after is to get several hens, no roosters.

Hens lay eggs, don't have to worry about culling the numbers, free eggs. Profit.
Right now, the egg laying process is halted unless the eggs are fertilized, if the eggs are fertilized, one would preferably make more chickens out of them.
Since i can't just put them in the freezer, since if i then want to get some new chickens, the eggs will be ruined from the freezing.
Or one has an exploding number of chickens that eat a ton of food.

It would be really nice to have 5-10 chickens, no rooster, and one gets an unfertilized egg every day per chicken.
But at the moment one can't do this, something that is possible in real life.

Can you set a limit on stockpiles? Allow only X amount of Y?
This would help a lot since then one could set only a few eggs for breeding and the rest to food.

[Totentag]

I don't think I phrased this suggestion correctly.

I'm not after "several hens" or anything else to do with chickens.

I'm after all species of birds laying unfertilized eggs when domesticated.

[AileTheAlien]

That seems pretty reasonable to me. It might be a bit boring if all egg-laying species layed eggs when domesticated, since finding out which species lay eggs or not can be a fun exercise for player. (Similarly, not all species can be sheered for wool / fur.) Still, having only chickens lay eggs is equally boring, and frustrating given that non-chicken eggs actually already exist in the game (you can see it on the "what will this town buy" screen). For balance (and player variety/choice), there's lots that can be tweaked. Nutrition, number of eggs over time, mass (affects caravans), spoilage time. Heck, I think with what's in the XML right now, you could make an egg that has high beauty, high hitpoints, high value, and can be installed like a small statue, but no nutritional value - make a goose (chicken) that lays golden eggs!

[Klomster]

I don't think I phrased this suggestion correctly.

I'm not after "several hens" or anything else to do with chickens.

I'm after all species of birds laying unfertilized eggs when domesticated.

Ok, chicken eggs was an example.
But am i right in that you simply want eggs to be laid regardless of fertilization or not? Because that was what i wrote.

Since even the wild animals don't lay eggs, i suppose this is to keep littering down on the map but in reality chickens lay eggs every day, while other species lay them periodically, usually once or twice per year.
Chickens having been historically domesticated because of their very high egg laying cycle, just feed them and they lay tons of eggs year round, profit!

Other species (IRL) doesn't work like this since they only lay eggs a few times per year and those would preferably be used for breeding instead. Getting more animals to instead eat the meat.

So for example ostriches lay so few eggs, it wouldn't be sustainable to live from the eggs.
Also on the topic of all birds.
It's chicken, turkey, ostrich. And i'm certain chicken and turkey have ferti and unferti eggs. Not sure of ostrich.
And all the reptiles have both eggs as well.

The only reason not all of those lay loads of eggs, is since the egg process in game is stopped when not fertilized.
I actually don't know how to get hold of unfertilized eggs, they seem to be random.
So it's nothing to do with what species they are.

If you want to you can breed iguanas, as long as they are fertilized they will lay loads of eggs. And if it's true it's random for eggs to be unfertilized you will get some of those as well.

So if i understand you it's that you want the egg process to proceed beyond 50% even if the egg is unfertilized as long as the animal is domesticated?
I think this is reasonable.

[Bobisme]

I'm no EGGspert ..heh
But i read another post on this forum (from a long time ago) that the reason only the chicken in game lays many unfertilized eggs is that IRL they have been domesticated to do so and i don't just mean your tame gimme eggs, but like 100's of years of evolving them to do so and other birds generally will only lay an egg after it has been fertilized. Generally*  (and Tynan wanted that reflected here)
Second hand info here, so don't get me wrong, i've also read conflicting info on it..

[bobucles]

On earth, chickens eat our food scrap leftovers to produce both tasty daily eggs and anime sized tiddies that continue to get larger with every new generation.

Chickens on the rim are scrawny jerks that eat a tenth of a survival package meal, ruin the rest, and sometimes produce an egg if they're in a good mood.

Renewable eggs and milk in general are extremely weak. A single egg's nutrition value is basically non existent and the effort required to harvest them is extremely high. Milk is similarly a high labor low reward product, especially because it will summon your animal handlers from across the map at any time to drop fresh food in the middle of nowhere. It's a cute system, but unfortunately the effort/reward isn't really there.

[Bobisme]

2 eggs = a simple meal, that's pretty flash, i let them roam around my hay stock, the dent they make is negligible, though i only have 8 or so.
Eggs are also very light weight, i can throw 50 eggs into a pod and it only weighs 7.5 kg for 25 meals makes me happy