Pen

Pens are areas to contain farm animals. These can be created with a mixture of solid walls, doors, animal flaps, fences, or fence gates. Colonists will automatically rope unassigned tamed farm animals and lead them to a pen. Roped animals can only pass through fence gates. Animals in a pen will be passive and will not attack hostiles, and vice versa. Predators will not target penned animals inside a pen, but if it wanders into the pen, it can. Be aware that all pawns except farm animals (including predatorial animals), can enter a pen through either a fence or a fence gate by jumping over.

Unpenned farm animals cannot be assigned to an area like humans and pets, and will roam around, producing large amounts of filth, which is reduced by a factor of x0.05 by the straw matting floor. A minor, permanent warning will appear, reminding you to either pen the animal or place straw matting. They will also occasionally attempt to roam off the map, determined by the roam interval stat. The game will also give a temporary warning in the top left of the screen if this happens.

Clicking on a pen marker will show three buttons, each containing useful information and configurations for a pen. The first tab is used to configure which species of animal is allowed in the pen. The second shows how many animals a pen can sustain without colonist intervention (through grass and brambles that grow naturally), measured in cows, goats, and chickens, including an option to force display other animals in the count. The third tab allows you to set up auto-cut orders for plants. You can also set up an auto-slaughter order in the animals tab that sets a slaughter job for animals when the count of a certain gender and species surpasses a set number. Juvenile animals are not included in this count, but pregnant animals can be allowed. The auto-slaughter will mark animals in the order of oldest to youngest, and will mark pregnant animals (if allowed) in the order of their pregnancy (most recent to least recent).

Building

For an place to be considered a pen it should be a closed area surrounded by barriers (walls, doors, animal flaps, fences or fence gates), with at least one animal-suitable entrance (like fence gate) to lead animals in. A Pen marker is also required and serves as a stat display when selected. Unless these conditions are met, an area is not considered a pen and colonists won't begin to rope tamed pen animals in.

Marking the pen zone as a separate area manually is not required, it's handled by the pen marker as long as the conditions above are met.

Rooms separated from the pen with an animal flap instead of a door will count as part of the attached pen. The animal flap can be used to create a room for animals to sleep in, cool down, or warm up in extreme temperatures. Thus, depending on the season and biome, building a barn (a walled area with roof and and animal flap for a door) with controlled temperature inside a pen can be a good idea. Harsh climate (or winter cold) can be harmful for animals. If you want to place a floor in a barn, best use straw matting to minimize filth generated by farm animals.

Sustenance and size planning

Different animals require a different amount of food. An adult pig (0.8) or a cow (0.86) consumes much more than, say, a sheep (0.36) and thus requires a bigger pen to survive. Pens tend to be large more often than not (a 20x20 pen on a normal soil in Temperate forest holding grass can barely maintain 4 adult pigs), and since animals tend to multiply, it's good to have reserve space.

Amount of sustenance (grass, brambles, plants etc) inside a pen does not depend on the size alone but rather on the amount of vegetation present inside. Consequently, a pen set on stony soil without grass will give little to no sustenance. Moreover, amount of food available in dynamic, which can be seen by viewing Pen marker: sometimes an animal consumes a tile of grass, reducing overall quantity. In warm biomes supporting growing, grass and other vegetation also gradually regrow, albeit slowly (and not in cold seasons), which may or may not compensate consumption. Consider "switching" animals between different pens if you have enough space to allow time to regrow. Additionally, while you can't grow grass directly (outside of Dev console), you can plant flowers (such as dandelions) which count as valid grazing.

Animals graze on grass and other vegetation, but normally not on trees, so trees contribute nothing to sustenance and can be safely cut. Avoid planting common human crops and hay intended for storage inside a pen since many animals consider live plants as valid food and can damage your farm. Wildfires can destroy vegetation quickly: keep them in check to avoid damage to your pen!

Outdoor plants usually freeze when it's too cold outside and animals can't use normal vegetation in a pen for food any more. Consider stocking on Hay and/or Kibble if you want your livestock to survive through the winter and mind their dietary needs to avoid starvation.

Version history

• 1.3.3159 - Remove animal handling skill requirements for roping to pen.