[Spoilers?] Pre-nether chicken farm?

[RalphKastro]

Tagged for spoilers just to be sure.

I've been trying to develop my bases the most I can before going through progression bottlenecks like diamonds and the nether(mostly because I'm a chickenshit).

After some pondering about renewable food, and falling in love with the campfire+cauldron realized that chickens are actually still possible to maintain alive without torches, so long as you manage to prevent spiders to spawn in their pen and from outside spiders to reach them.

I've tried to make either mazelike or grid-like fenced areas, but it seems that spiders either can reach the chickens from atop the fence, or are somehow sneaking in-between the grid fences.

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Has anybody managed to do something like that pre-nether that's easily expandable, who could give me any tips?

EDIT: also, do cows regenerate from eating?

[dawnraider]

Spiders are only 1.5 blocks wide and can fit between fence posts spaced like that.

[Hiracho]

This is my current world's Chicken coup :) It's got a grass roof for safer grass growth and blocks spiders from spawning inside. Sorry for the dark pic.

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[RalphKastro]

Spiders are only 1.5 blocks wide and can fit between fence posts spaced like that.

That explains it, thanks :), I got the idea somewhere that they were 2 blocks wide.

This is my current world's Chicken coup :) It's got a grass roof for safer grass growth and blocks spiders from spawning inside. Sorry for the dark pic.

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Oh, I thought that grass could only grow with direct sunlight. Is it big and fast enough to sustain a big chicken population?

[dawnraider]

Grass needs sunlight but it doesn't have to be direct. Punching a hole in the ceiling every 4 blocks lets in enough light for the grass to grow.

[Hiracho]

You can make it as big as you want, It takes more work than a regular pen but it is a lot more compact too