Editing Pen

{{Rewrite|reason=Cleanup, what animals are penned}}

A '''pen''' is an area created specifically to contain [[Animals|farm animals]]. Pens can be created with a mixture of [[fence]]s and [[fence gate]]s, [[barricade]]s, solid [[wall]]s (constructed or naturally occurring) and/or [[door]]s. [[Animal flap]]s can be used to provide indoor sections to a pen that animals can move freely into and out of without leaving or compromising the pen. Pens can be designated for different types of animals (see below), and colonists assigned to the Animals work will automatically rope wandering 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.  

Pens are good, but not perfect, protection against predatory wild animals, which will happily kill your tamed animals for a quick meal. Predators that are outside a pen will not target penned animals on the other side of a pen's fence/barrier, but if it randomly wanders over a barrier and ''into'' the pen, then it can. An alert will be given when a predator has wandered into a pen that is currently in use. Be aware that all animals except pennable animals will wander the map randomly, and will occasionally enter a pen by jumping over a fence or gate.

A pen marker is an important part of a pen, and is quickly built for only 30 [[stuff]]. It designates what animals are to be put inside the pen; until you place a pen marker, no animals will be hauled there. Pen markers also give you additional information and control over each separate pen area (see below). It does not matter where in the pen you place the pen marker; put it somewhere you can easily find it again to refer to it when you need to.

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 [[cow]]s, [[goat]]s, and [[chicken]]s, 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).

For a place to be considered a pen it should be a closed area surrounded by barriers:([[wall]]s, [[door]]s, [[fence]]s or [[fence gate]]s), with at least one animal-suitable entrance (i.e. 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 recognized as a "pen" and colonists won't begin to rope tamed pen animals in.

A room separated from the pen with an [[animal flap]] instead of a [[door]] will count as part of the attached pen, and extreme temperatures can be harmful for animals. Depending on the season and biome, building a barn (a walled area with roof and [[animal flap]] for a door) with controlled temperature inside a pen can be a good precaution against severe temperatures. Place [[animal sleeping spot]]s inside the barn (place lots, for future births/additions). If you want to place a [[floor]] in a barn, best use [[straw matting]] to minimize filth generated by farm animals (with appropriate [[fire]] precautions).

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 is 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.

 

== Version history ==

* [[Version/1.3.3101|1.3.3101]] - Predators no longer hunt animals on the other side of fences. Predators can still randomly wander into animal pens. Add an alert to tell the player when a predator has wandered into a pen in use. Fix: Animal pen marker animal consumption assumes animals are always hungry, halving reported consumption.