Can confirm this exists in 2603 as well. It’s also not confined to chickens. Rabbits and Sheep also do this. In the screenshot below, no one is around the rabbit, and yet I sit there watching as the gates open and close for the little fella. Also note, my sheep is not in his pen.
Hearthlings are also not at all diligent about closing gates, which certainly doesn’t help.
Lastly, the gate and door animation triggers will often not fire, resulting in hearthlings that appear to simply walk right through closed doors and gates. Not sure if these issues are related to the same root cause, but it certainly does feel that way.
Something I noticed is that the opening of the gate seems to be real finicky - in that it’ll open for any animal from what seems like a very far distance but it will never open for my hearthlings.
My pasture was fenced before the Shepherd started to get Poyos but the chickens don’t stay in their pasture and instead roam the town. Here is a link for the game save:
You can use this work around : Make a pit large enough to house them: put the livestock zone in it then add a ladder for the herder to be able to get out.
Thank for the tip! This has been driving me crazy How deep did you make the pit? I’m now having visions of festive piggies falling, squealing, to their deaths
I used the 4 deep then think 12x16 added a few fields on top(poyo) and after there where chickens removed the top zone so they would also fall into the pit once there was food in the pit.
So a zone of 2 poyo’s now holds 6
My herder did fail to find sheep might try a top field again first and then remove it
funny thing the chickens going down use the ladder
This is resolved. Animals will stay in their zones, unless there is food in another zone, in which case they will leave, eat, and return without Shepherd intervention.