Hatchery Mod Wiki

Hatchery transforms the vanilla Minecraft chicken farming experience into a detailed and rewarding system. Instead of the simple 'throw eggs and hope' or 'instant baby' mechanics, Hatchery introduces a lifecycle that includes nesting, egg incubation, and waste management. Players can build automated industrial-scale farms that produce not only chickens and eggs but also powerful fertilizers and Redstone Flux (RF) energy.

The mod is designed to work seamlessly with other chicken-related mods (such as the 'Chickens' mod) but provides a complete standalone experience for players looking to enhance their agricultural builds.

Hatchery fundamentally changes how chickens interact with the world through several key mechanics:

Realistic Breeding

By default, breeding two chickens with seeds no longer results in an immediate baby chicken. Instead, the chickens will drop a Fertilized Egg. This egg must be placed in a Chicken Nest or an Egg Incubator to hatch. This mechanic can be toggled in the configuration files.

Egg Hatching

Eggs in Hatchery have a progress bar. They require time and, in some cases, specific conditions to hatch. Throwing eggs to spawn chickens can be disabled in the config to encourage the use of the nesting system.

Waste Management

Chickens kept in Chicken Nests will periodically produce Chicken Manure. This manure is a core resource for the mod's advanced agricultural and energy systems, serving as the base for high-tier fertilizers.

Hatchery adds new biological variety to the poultry population.

Rooster

Roosters are a new mob that spawns naturally in the world alongside chickens. They are visually distinct, featuring a larger red comb and wattles.

Lucky Chicken

While not a separate entity in the world, chickens have a small chance to lay a Lucky Egg. When these eggs are thrown or hatched, they have a chance to drop rare loot or spawn unique entities.

The blocks in Hatchery are the workhorses of the farm, providing automation and utility.

Chicken Nest

The Chicken Nest is the most basic block. You can place a chicken inside it by right-clicking with an Animal Net.

• Function: The chicken will stay in the nest, producing eggs and manure.
• Automation: Items can be extracted from the bottom of the nest using hoppers or pipes.
• Inventory: Contains slots for the chicken, one egg, and one pile of manure.

Hatchery (Egg Incubator)

A specialized block used to hatch multiple eggs at once. It provides a controlled environment that speeds up the hatching process compared to a standard nest.

Animal Feeder

Automatically feeds nearby animals within a 9x9 area. If the feeder contains the appropriate food (like seeds), it will automatically breed animals when they are ready.

Nursery

The Nursery is designed to hold baby animals. While inside, the growth process of the baby animal is significantly accelerated. Once they reach adulthood, they can be easily moved back to a nest or pen.

Fertilizer Mixer

This machine combines Chicken Manure and Water to create Liquid Fertilizer. It requires a small amount of energy to operate and is the first step in the mod's 'tech' progression.

Fertilizer Sprayer

A machine that uses Liquid Fertilizer to automatically apply a bone-meal effect to crops in a large area around it. It is significantly more efficient than manual farming.

Digester Generator

The Digester Generator converts Chicken Manure or Liquid Fertilizer into Redstone Flux (RF). This allows your chicken farm to become a self-sustaining power plant.

Tools and Utility

Upgrades

Machines like the Fertilizer Mixer and Digester Generator can be improved using internal upgrades:

• Speed Upgrade: Increases the processing speed of the machine.
• Efficiency Upgrade: Reduces the energy or resource cost per operation.

While most recipes follow standard patterns, the core items are crafted as follows:

Note: Exact recipe layouts should be viewed in-game using a recipe viewer like JEI, as they may be modified by modpacks.

Hatchery includes a robust configuration file (hatchery.cfg) to balance the mod for different playstyles.

• Breeding gives Eggs: (Default: true) If true, breeding chickens results in an egg item rather than a spawned chick.
• Can Throw Eggs: (Default: true) If set to false, vanilla eggs cannot be thrown to hatch chickens, forcing the use of nests.
• Egg Hatching Time: Adjusts how long it takes for an egg to hatch in a nest or incubator.
• Manure Drop Rate: Controls how frequently chickens in nests produce manure.
• Rooster Spawn Probability: Adjusts how often Roosters spawn in the wild.