Hogs, Chickens, Goats, Fish, Fruit and Bees!

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Hey everyone! In a campaign I'm running, the players are traveling through some new wilderness territory, and will encounter some new creatures and people. One of them is a wicked and evil wizard who is in league with other members of an evil character party living in a powerful enchanted fortress. Now, using technological and engineering skill supplemented with magic, new techniques and strategies of resource development are made. However, before these elements can be developed, I wanted to know some real-world base-line parameters. Here goes;

Hogs; living in a 5x5 or 10x10 concrete/cage pen, wall to wall, in a building that is 6000 feet long, and 3000 feet wide. (18000 Square Feet?)

Roughly, same thing with the chickens, goats, fish, and bees.

How fast do such animals produce to maturity? At what rates and how many can be harvested per day, week, or month, and still maintain a gradually increasing population?

How many fish are produced by fish in large hatcheries, and at what rates? Weekly, etc.

How many bees in a hive produce how much honey, how fast?

And forget animal rights. These guys are all about profit and efficiency. The animals are fed specially formulated food, enhanced with magic as needed, and kept jammed in dark, lightless cavern-like buildings that never see the light of day. They are watered and fed, bred for the best characteristics, and appropriately slaughterted and harvested at the right proportions to feed huge populations, as well as to sell to others for handsome profits, and at the same time maintain the seed stocks.

How's that?

Oh, yeah, also, how many pounds of vegetables, fruits, and so on can be grown and harvested at what rates, in giant glass greenhouses, fed by decanters of endless water? Lets say the greenhouses are 6000 feet long and 3000 feet wide, and three or four stories high.

Perhaps some of my friends can help me out with this information? I can then tabulate it and maybe post an organized form for everyone here to use!

Thanks!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[DMH]

I'll talk fish since that is my field:

In tropical waters some fish have a truely amazing growth rate. I have read that walking catfish can grow to 5 pounds in 6 months with a production value of 100,000 pounds per acre per year. In sewage filled rivers in India, common carp have a production value of 400,000 pounds per acre per year. So with magic warming the ponds in temperate areas, a lot of fish can be produced.

The advantage of fish over most other meat is the food to flesh ratio- how much food to produce a pound of useable meat. Farmed fish (not all fish) can be as low as 1.5 pounds whereas cows and pigs are between 6 and 8 and chickens are 2 to 3.

Personally I would either use grass carp or tilapia as both consume plant matter and have awesome growth rates in tropical waters. Or a polyculture of grass and common carp as the grass' fecal matter makes great food for the common (along with cow and pig dung).

 

[Henry]

One quick side note:

SHARK! Don't be such a stranger around these parts! We miss you! How have you been, man?

OK, diversion over.

 

[Coredump]

And forget animal rights. These guys are all about profit and efficiency. The animals are fed specially formulated food, enhanced with magic as needed, and kept jammed in dark, lightless cavern-like buildings that never see the light of day. They are watered and fed, bred for the best characteristics, and appropriately slaughterted and harvested at the right proportions to feed huge populations, as well as to sell to others for handsome profits, and at the same time maintain the seed stocks.

Without getting into the politics of the situation, or right/wrong, etc. That is pretty much exactly how it is done now.

 

[Ace]

Glad you are back SHARK!

As for you animal questions I have to answer with a question of my own -- why bother?

With all the magic in your game world why not either give everyone a Ring of Sustanence or if the cost is too great make an enhanced "Create Food and Water" device

IMC a device of this sort is called a Crucible -- It costs about 10000 GP (its a 5th level effect) and can create food and water for 20 people in 6 seconds -- Think of a magic Star Trek replicator. With one of these you can feed 5000 people in an hour easy

At meal time the soldiers line up, put a plate and mug in the machine and activate it. This creates the meal and flavors it to taste (a cantrip effect at will)

Decanters of Endless Water provide any needed water for washing or drinking with a cistern system for back up

With all the space you save you can store some iron rations for emergencies. To prevent spoilage/rats/enemy actiom a detail could be tasked to run a rod that can cast Purify Food and Drink as well as Detect Poison (which would cost about 3500) over the stores and the cistern

Given the EPIC power in your world shielding this stuff would be pretty easy. Another advantage since you don't need animals or as much stored food that will free up space for more troops.

Having such a depersonalized army will give the player a greater shock than an army of the living dead.

As for morale issues I suggest magic items that cast a Mass Suggestion think an Evil PA system broadcasting stuff like --- you are very proud to serve -- you are happy in your service-- you are not bored-- train hard -- fight hard -- kill the enemy etc etc --

 

[mmadsen]

As for you animal questions I have to answer with a question of my own -- why bother?

With all the magic in your game world why not either give everyone a Ring of Sustanence or if the cost is too great make an enhanced "Create Food and Water" device

Really, where's the fun in that?

 

[Ace]

Really, where's the fun in that?

Huh?

 

[pogre]

That would be a LOT of chickens - I mean a LOT. The size of those pens are pretty big by even modern standards for factory birds. I've been in a couple of Arkansas chicken houses that were not that big and produced around 20,000 roosters a month for eating. Roosters are generally harvested at about 10-14 months. Hens are kept for eggs mostly.

The problems would be keeping the place clean and stopping viruses from wiping the whole bunch out - that's the major challenge of modern day chicken ranching too. I will shoot an e-mail down to a a buddy to get more solid numbers for you.

edit: here's a number for you - I've been informed my numbers were high by a reliable source...

broilers usually are at .68, .70 or .75 square feet per bird.

Every broiler yields about 6 oz. of meat per month averaged out.

Using your sq. footage number of 18,000 we get 26,500 birds conservatively or 9,937 lbs. of meat per month.

Now realize this is IF you go with broilers on a single rack (birds intended for eating only) - you could stack birds more than this but then you're challenged with more disease issues.

It's all different if you are doing egg production - hens get considerably less space per bird for that.

 

[mmadsen]

Huh?

A Ring of Sustanence does not provide a fantastic site for an adventure. A giant magical slaughterhouse does.

 

[Voadam]

CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) depend on a lot of good technology for feeding and watering the animals, gathering and disposing of the animal wastes, keeping the animals healthy, and gathering the eggs or handling the slaughtering and butchering in the numbers they do. Magic would need to do a lot of work or have a significantly larger number of servitors working to take care of these needs than in a modern facility. Cruel living conditions alone are not sufficient for one person to handle a CAFO or for a CAFO to even operate with limited tech.

I would suggest googling "pig farms" as there is a lot of stuff out there on them. I seem to recall that pigs get to be hundreds of pounds within two years but its been a while.