Herding

Herding

Animal Husbandry is the science of the domestication of various sorts of animals. Animals are commonly raised to produce meat, hides, milk, fleece, and eggs.

The herding skill covers animal husbandry in general and is used with herds or flocks of animals to allow the herder to examine the herd, care for the animals, move them around, gather them together and split them apart. It also allows for the production of the raw animal products, such as fleeces, milk, eggs, and slaughtered livestock.

In order to work with the animals, you need to round them up into a herd. You may round up individual animals and herds of animals with the same command.

Command:

roundup herdanimal1,herdanimal2,...

Examples: roundup sheep 1,sheep 2,lamb roundup herd 1,herd 2 roundup herd,cow roundup flock 1,chicken 1,flock 2,chicken 2

The animals all have to be of the same herd type. I.e.: sheep and lambs for a flock of sheep, cows and calves for a herd of cattle. The minimum size for a herd is three animals. Below this, the herd will disintegrate into individual animals again.

Herds may be referred to either by their collective name or by the name of the type of animals. I.e.: a herd of cattle may be referred to as either herd or cattle and a flock of sheep may be either flock or sheep. If there is more than one type in the same place, they may be referred to as herd 1, herd 2, etc.

Once you have a herd or flock together, the first thing to do is to examine it. This will tell you how many animals are in the herd, and the number of adults and young. Skilled herders will also be able to tell the general health of the herd and other details depending on the type of animal.

Animals that are left untended will be apt to get sickly and die. Herds past a certain size will lose health faster than smaller herds. Also, if there are more young in a herd than adults, they will need more care.

A herdsman can use the tend command to take care of his or her herd. You will need some kind of grain or corn to feed the herd.

Command:

tend herd

Takes care of the herd, feeding it and treating animals for sickness and injuries.

Examples: tend herd tend chickens 1

While maintaining a herd you might want to separate the males and females after the herd reaches a certain size, only breeding for replacement. Herds that are left to breed freely become unwieldy and difficult to tend

Command:

breed herd [to target]

Sets the target size of the herd. Without the target size, it lets the animals breed freely.

Examples: breed swine breed cattle 2 to 50

Once you have a herd you might want to move it around. This is accomplished by the herd command.

Command:

herd herd

Examples: herd cow herd cattle herd flock 2

This will start you herding the animals. When you try to move, your herding skill will be tested, and if successful, you and the animals will move. If you aren't skilled enough, the animals will just mill around and you'll go nowhere. You may 'stop herding' at any time. Note, you may not herd animals inside unless it is a stable or barn.

You can also herd individual animals, but this is more difficult and all it really does is pursuade the animal to start following you.

Sometimes, you might want to split a herd into two smaller ones, either to make it easier to move, or because the original herd has gotten too large and sickens easily.

Command:

split [number] {animals|young} [and [number] {adults|young}] from herd

Examples:

split sheep from flock split 5 sheep from flock 2 split 5 cows and 1 calf from herd split 1 lamb from flock 3

This will split off the number of adults and/or young from the herd, forming another one. Again, if you split off fewer than 3 animals, that herd will disintegrate into individual animals. If you do not specify a number, (as in the first example above) all animals of that group, adults or young will be split off.

Domesticated herd animals are more docile and easier to slaughter than normal wild animals. You can use the slaughter command to slaughter either an animal in a herd, or a single living animal. This is not a function of combat, but of your herding skill. Single animals will be more difficult to slaughter than those that have been rounded up into herds. Note: Never confuse a wild longhorn with a domesticated cow.

Command: slaughter animal slaughter {young|adult} in herd

Examples: slaughter lamb slaughter sheep in flock slaughter calf in herd

In most cases, you will need a blade or a hammer to slaughter an animal.

Depending on the type of animals, you may be able to get various products from them without slaughtering them. There are various commands you can use depending on the type of herd.

Sheep and some goats (i.e. cashmere and angora) bear wool. You can get this by shearing them.

Command:

shear flock

Examples: shear sheep shear goats 2

You will need a pair of shears.

Cows and most goats give milk.

Command:

milk herd[=percentage]

Examples: milk herd milk herd 1=20

You will need a bucket to milk a herd. Note that dairy herds with young will have less milk available.

Chickens, geese and other birds might give you eggs.

Command:

collect eggs from flock