I'm sick of all these horses, cows and donkeys wandering round my fortress. I want to put them all somewhere and have them stay there. In short, I want a farm. It would be nice if the animals had some space to roam and if they could still breed too.
What's the best way to achieve this? Should I cage them all up transport them somewhere with doors that aren't passable to animals and then let them out?
Is there a better way?
To make this plan work, will I need to provide the critters with food and water? How best to achieve this?
Best Answer
If you want to accomplish anything you'll probably want to build a cage (or multiple) and have it in one room. Assign all the animals to the cage(s) and keep them in there. You'll probably want to make a zoo from that cage.
What this means is that you don't need to feed/water them while they're in the cage, they can't move around so they won't eat your framerate, and by making it a zoo you even give your dwarves happy thoughts for watching animals, and even have another meeting hall.
If you put them all in an enclosed space they will still try to sneak out whenever a dwarf opens the door, and they will keep walking around which will hurt your framerate.