Shove Vole Farm

There is 1 species of Shove Vole in the game, and this makes it easier to breed, because they do not need selection. Another great feature - Shove Vole does not experience overcrowding, therefore can be kept in large numbers in a small room, along with the eggs.

Shove Vole consumes regolith, and releases it (50% of what is eaten). Thus, its only purpose is to breed for meat. Just from her eggs after hatching the shell falls out.

This article will consider 4 farms, very similar at first glance, but very different as the productivity of meat, and labor costs of dupes.

The first farm is completely starved - nothing is fed to it. The rest of the farms are semi-starved, consuming about 200 kg of regolith per cycle. Therefore, the Shove Vole will not "allocate" anything, and none of the farms have Robo-miner.

Nevertheless, over 400 cycles of the test, in two farms at 1 time Shove Vole managed to allocate a block of regolith (probably a glitch), which filled the grooming station. This doesn't cause any problems - you get a message and can remove the regolith with a dupe. If you want, you can add 1 Robo-miner to each of the schemes, you don't have to reconfigure automatics and/or conveyors.

Shove Vole do not go through hard blocks, such as obsidian (which is used to build walls in the schemes) or pneumatic doors.

Properties of Shove Vole

 * Food: regolith, dirt, iron ore, 4,800 kg/cycle
 * Lifespan: 100 cycles
 * Reproduction rate: 2% (no care), 17% (with care)
 * Incubation rate: 5% (basic), 25% (incubator).
 * Temperature: -200...+500°C

Starved type



 * Nothing to consume
 * Minimum dupes labor
 * Can be built without conveyors
 * No automation
 * Fast to be ready


 * Produces kcal of meat and 0.9 kg of shell per cycle

In the scheme (as in all others) were transferred 8 Shove Voles. The population of Shove Voles steadily increased to 11 pieces and stopped there. The next 400 cycles, their number fluctuated from 10 to 12 pcs.

So it makes sense initially, with feeding, to bring their population to 20 pcs, and then stop feeding. Well, or try to find them on the map in the amount of 12-16 pcs. The scheme was tested with the initial 15 Shove Voles.

Conveyor loader - everything but the eggs. Automatics is absent.

Micro version



 * Produces kcal of meat and 1.3 kg of shell per cycle
 * Consumes 200 kg of regolith per cycle


 * Requires 1 dupe for the entire cycle

The same as the scheme above, but started with a conveyor with regolith, the supply of which is regulated by a timer, with a setting of 1 - green, 150 - red periods. I.e. regolith is fed only in quantity about 200 kg/cycle.

Number of Shove Voles reaches 80 pcs, that takes work of dupe completely on all cycle.

When the desired population is reached you can stop the regolith feed or switch off the Grooming/Incubator station.

Combined version



 * Produces kcal of meat and 0.7 kg of shell per cycle
 * Enhances 200kg of regolith per cycle

''Such a mishap happened - the more advanced version with feeding, lost to a simple, hungry farm. A clear example of how the more abstruse version can lose to the simpler version.''

There are 2 rooms in the scheme: the right one is half-starved (with feeding as in the previous one) and the left one is starved. Eggs will be placed first in the incubator (worth prioritizing a little higher), and when it is full, transferred to the starving room.

This will keep the population of Shove Voles in a pen with a grooming station at 19...22, and the dupes will spend much less time grooming them.

Due to the fact that half of the Shove Voles do not receive care, the scheme takes longer for the others to reach the estimated mode.

The door between the rooms should be closed so that the dupes can't steal eggs. Left loader - only eggs, right loader - everything except eggs and regolith. Automation is similar to the previous scheme.

Maxi version



 * Produces kcal of meat and 2.0 kg of shell per cycle


 * Consumes 600 kg of regolith per cycle


 * Requires 1 dupe for the entire cycle

Scheme consists of 2 rooms: the right room, with the grooming station, and the left room, with incubators. All eggs are taken out to the left room. The hatching Shove Voles will be dropped into the main (half-starved) farm using the doors.

In the scheme was fed more regolith (timer 1 - green, 100 - red periods), about 600 kg/cycle, in the expectation to achieve a large number of Shove Voles (200+ pcs). But it seems to be limited not by feeding, but by lack of care.

Increasing number of grooming stations to 2...3, maybe it is possible to increase productivity of the scheme by 2 times. But it would require not 1 dupe per full cycle, but 2. In this form the circuit produces 23690 kcal of meat or 29620 kcal as a barbecue.

Daily timers are needed to save energy. Their purpose and setting were described here. The rest of the settings are similar to the previous scheme.

Killer Version



 * Doesn't consume anything
 * Produces kcal of meat and 1.7 kg of shell

The Klei forum gave me link to an interesting variant of a vole farm:
 * Complicated to build
 * Requires a lot of dupes work

The idea is that a vole without power has time to lay only 1 egg, and after that it becomes pointless to take care of it, it's easier to drown it (so as not to suffer). Below is my version:

The farm consists of 16 identical blocks, with grooming stations, four drowning rooms and a room with incubators. After the vole lays an egg, the upper door will open and the vole will enter the corridor - the door will close. The dupe will bring a new baby vole and take the egg to the hatchery and sing it a song.

The vole reaches the drowning room quickly enough, the animal sensor closes the door over it... and in 10 seconds the auto-sweeper will load the meat.

Settings:
 * Sensors at grooming station: left < 1 (critters); right > 1 ( critters and eggs)
 * Sensors in drowning station: < 1
 * Cycle sensor: 20% green
 * Filters: 3 sec.
 * Critter drop-off: 1
 * Loaders: all but eggs
 * Drowning tank: 100 kg of water

Since the farm is hungry, you will need any other farm to get the initial population of 16 voles. And do not rush to remove it (as well as for any other hungry farm).

There is a small disadvantage in this scheme - if the dupe drops an egg on the way to another farm (e.g. it's rest time, narcoleptic or a glitch), that egg will cause a false sensor response. This is a rare occurrence, but the vole population may go down after many, many cycles. And you will have to replenish the voles from another farm.

The scheme can be reduced by a floor or, conversely, increased by several floors, but there is no point in this scheme - it's too complicated and bulky. It is easier to put a few hungry ferms (1st scheme in the article). As an option, this scheme can be combined with half-starved.

Working time of the dupe was 25% (daily statistics). A simple hungry farm took the dupes 29%, which in terms of 2 simple farms would give 58% or 33% savings in dupes time. Imho, this gain is not worth this overcomplication.

Blueprints
Starved type  Micro version   Combined version   Maxi version  Killer Version