Chicken Automation

[woggy]

I am aware I may be jumping the gun slightly as regards the tech tree, but. Is there a way to automate egg collection without a Hopper? I've got a sustainable chicken farm but it feels like such a waste of time to be sitting around waiting for eggs when I could be mining or whatever.

(Tech level is still essentially nil - I just scraped enough iron for a second tool. Waiting for the hemp farm to grow.)

[AddyBaha]

If you got enough iron you could use a stewing pot for collection. That's all I can think of. On the other hand if you can build a stewingpot you are not far away from being able to build a hopper.

[EtherealWrath]

Well the cauldron is needed to make the hopper; so it'll work until you get the other pieces in place to get one going.
(depending on your strategy you could get a cauldron with your 3rd iron pick; long before a hemp plantation becomes established)

Though if you're this early in the game- I assume you're hiding from the night, with your chickens close by?

Spoiler

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Try feeding them right after sunset ;)

[Epsilon]

I am in a similar Situation, and what "EtherealWrath" said is a verry good solution. Most of the time I feed my chucks at sunset and then go on doing stuff in my base eventualy checking for the eggs (Theay have something between 5 and 7 minutes to manifest). For example I like building huge underground storage rooms; thats just perfect for this times.

Though if you're this early in the game- I assume you're hiding from the night, with your chickens close by?

Spoiler

Show

Try feeding them right after sunset ;)

[woggy]

Well the cauldron is needed to make the hopper; so it'll work until you get the other pieces in place to get one going.
(depending on your strategy you could get a cauldron with your 3rd iron pick; long before a hemp plantation becomes established)

Though if you're this early in the game- I assume you're hiding from the night, with your chickens close by?

Spoiler

Show

Try feeding them right after sunset ;)

I am indeed, and yeah. It makes a decent enough thing to do during the night. When I'm not mining.

[SpaceGuyR]

I've done initial automation (seeds to eggs), but it uses a Wooden Pressure Plate, so either a Saw (so you'd need a Hopper) or 'being able to go long distances'. (Nether, or the food this would provide...)

Spoiler: Alt. source of pressure plate

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(Non-abandoned desert temples contain a Wooden Pressure Plate.)

Buttons also need a Saw. (or Stronghold, I think)

The '5-minute' item timer is an option. ("10 seeds every time a dirt pile disappears")
A better idea is to dispense seeds as soon as they're eaten from on top of the pressure plate. You'll want to dispense multiple times 'until the pressure plate triggers' - a chicken could take a seed out of mid-air before it hits the plate. This doesn't need to be especially high precision - with a few chickens, they'll always be eaten before they disappear.

I used the 'signs block water' mechanic to avoid 'millions of chickens in one square'. Eggs fall through water, chickens don't. A more honest way might be chickens spread out on many powered Hoppers, eggs into a water flow, into a central Hopper. This is very expensive on gold.

Collecting eggs - Cauldron or hopper is best. (Or Crucible high tech, saves 1 redstone)

Specific pre-Hopper/Pressure Plate ideas:
Repeater timers take Stone (Fuel), Gold, Quartz, Redstone. Torch switching delays takes a lot of Redstone, again. Both are infeasible at this point.

The simplest trigger is a lever connected to a dispenser, refill dispenser every so often. This still prevents walking/jumping (hunger!) to the chicken pen, noise (if they're far away) and thinking time. ("open gate, some of them run out, bring them back with seeds...")

If you have enough redstone: Dispense a number of seeds whenever the lever changes state, to save effort in switching lots of times.

Collect as above (probably water/signs 'filter'), then water-flow the eggs into a common place you walk through. There'll probably be a couple eggs every time you walk through while in the base, so it's useful overall. When you have complete automation, the Hopper can go here too.

[ion]

myself i did the timer with seeds on a wooden pressure plate instead of decaying blocks. only one seed on the pressure and if get's eaten by chickens or decays another one drops. swimming chickens are very laggy and i avoid them every time.
when starting i just feed them at sunrise. this way i go out chopping wood, killing animals and still be able to get back to base before night when they should start laying eggs. gather eggs do some mining under my base.