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I've been messing around for the last week or so with trying to build an underground sheep farm. This is my first try at this in MineCraft, so I don't know if the issues I'm having are MineCraft related, SMP related, or MineRealm related. If anyone has some advice, I'd appreciate it I'd like to get this sorted so I can start dying sheep to harvest different colors of wool.

Description of pens:I've built pens that have 4x4 squares of dirt. The open vertical space is 6 blocks high with a 2 block thick ceiling and a very well lit tree farm above. The outer walls are 2 blocks thick, mostly glass, with cobble at the bottom and top. I've also put solid cobble 5 blocks down below the dirt level so nothing can spawn below them. I've left space between the pens so that there is no overlap in the 6x6x6 space. (I based in on the most recent info I had that the mob limit was 5 in a 6x6x6 space).



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What is happening:
I will breed sheep up to 5 in a pen and that will be fine for awhile, but over a few hours, the pens will lose sheep down to as few as 1. Sometimes they are just gone, sometimes their wool is left behind.

There is no way for a player to get in, everything is blocked off when I'm not in a pen, so noone is killing them. I never see any evidence of mobs near them.

Pen size might be too small at the bottom?
Cobblestone walls at the bottom might result in the sheep bumping into each other, glass walls at ground level should reduce this I think?
Sheep might still be 'escaping' through the glass roof if the pen depth is 2 deep. Potentially glitching out?

I'm not sure if the mob spawn limit works all the way through a chunk from skylimit to bedrock? If so other mobs might trigger despawn potentially?

Edit, The doors, they might be able to phase through doors? Consider dirt barrier in the 'airlock'.

I've personally watched animals suffocate by standing next to a pen wall, particularly sheep. It's apparently some sort of glitch where they get stuck in there.

I once also read about a bug/problem, that could result in them suffocating, namely that mobs are loaded before blocks and so they sometimes can move a bit before the blocks are completely loaded which results in them being inside of a wall and suffocate. Don't know if that is still actually a problem or not.

Might also be, that they push each other against/into the walls or simply them glitching through them. Glass blocks keep them from suffocating, but I had the problem of them getting out that way, so it depends on what you prefer.

The solution I have found for it, was having a bigger area for them and placing light in the middle, while keeping the outer areas darker. Sheeps etc. (as far as I understand the algorithm) tend to prefer lit areas and therefore it keeps them from constantly bumping and glitching into/through the walls. Not completely mind you, but it helps.

Just make the walls that touch the sheep either glass or fence. Otherwise, they will suffocate.

lol.

Aelcalan wrote:I've personally watched animals suffocate.

Ah so Glass is most likely a suitable solution, I think I'll have to install some glass blocks in the Turves pens.

my sheep farm is made out of 16 pens, the pens is the same size as a chunk (16*16) . betwen the pens there is also a 16 by 16 area, everything is under a deep sea and all tunnels under the farm is lit.
i keep 6 sheeps in each pen, and a pen for every colour, it works brilliant and no sheep have de-spawned ever.

kingofturves wrote:Pen size might be too small at the bottom?
Cobblestone walls at the bottom might result in the sheep bumping into each other, glass walls at ground level should reduce this I think?
Sheep might still be 'escaping' through the glass roof if the pen depth is 2 deep. Potentially glitching out?

I'm not sure if the mob spawn limit works all the way through a chunk from skylimit to bedrock? If so other mobs might trigger despawn potentially?

Edit, The doors, they might be able to phase through doors? Consider dirt barrier in the 'airlock'.

Thank you for the input, KoT
I'm going to start by making the walls glass all the way to the floor and also putting a dirt buffer in the airlock. I'll experiment with one pen and see how it goes. I'm not worried about the roof as they don't seem to be able to jump quite that high and its 2 blocks thick of cobble. I don't think the limit works bedrock to skylimit because previously Intelli said 6x6x6.

Aelcalan wrote:I've personally watched animals suffocate by standing next to a pen wall, particularly sheep. It's apparently some sort of glitch where they get stuck in there.

Ael, you are so sadistic, you just stood there and watched them die
Seriously though, thank you for the input!

Eldalar wrote:I once also read about a bug/problem, that could result in them suffocating, namely that mobs are loaded before blocks and so they sometimes can move a bit before the blocks are completely loaded which results in them being inside of a wall and suffocate. Don't know if that is still actually a problem or not.

Might also be, that they push each other against/into the walls or simply them glitching through them. Glass blocks keep them from suffocating, but I had the problem of them getting out that way, so it depends on what you prefer.

The solution I have found for it, was having a bigger area for them and placing light in the middle, while keeping the outer areas darker. Sheeps etc. (as far as I understand the algorithm) tend to prefer lit areas and therefore it keeps them from constantly bumping and glitching into/through the walls. Not completely mind you, but it helps.

Eldalar: thank you for your response! If the glass walls alone don't work I will try expanding the area they are in. Also, the light idea is interesting. I have my light in the four corners, so maybe that is drawing them to the walls.

guadalcanal1 wrote:Just make the walls that touch the sheep either glass or fence. Otherwise, they will suffocate.

Thanks, guadalcanal1 I have tried fences before and they seemed to escape through them but maybe a fence and then glass? hmm I will have to experiment more.

Le Tjommy wrote:my sheep farm is made out of 16 pens, the pens is the same size as a chunk (16*16) . betwen the pens there is also a 16 by 16 area, everything is under a deep sea and all tunnels under the farm is lit.
i keep 6 sheeps in each pen, and a pen for every colour, it works brilliant and no sheep have de-spawned ever.

Tjommy: wow! That's a lot of work. Which I'm not opposed to if its reliable. Are your 16 pens laid out in a grid or do you have floors of pens? If floors, how many block spaces vertically between floors

I'm having a somewhat related problem with sheep as well. They're not regrowing wool. I have the grass. I have it lit up. They even bob their head to eat the grass! Problem is, the grass never reverts to dirt and the sheep never regain their wool. This happened to me just today. Is this happening to anyone else? Is there any explanation for it? Am I doing something wrong?