Editing 23a:Butcher's shop

{{Quality|Fine|06:17, 29 July 2010 (UTC)}}
{{workshop|name=Butcher's shop|key=u|job={{L|Butchery}} 
|construction=
1 of
* {{L|Block}}
* {{L|Stone}}
* {{L|Wood}}
|construction_job=
* {{L|Butchery}}
* {{L|Trapping}}
|use=
* {{L|Animal|Tame land animal}}
* {{L|Corpse|Unrotten animal corpse}}
|production=
* {{L|Bone}}s
* {{L|Chunk}}s
* {{L|Fat}}
* {{L|Meat}}
* {{L|Skin}}
* {{L|Skull}}s
}}{{av}}

The '''butcher's shop''' is a {{L|workshop}} used to slaughter livestock that has been designated to be {{L|butchering|butchered}} in the z-status Animals submenu. There is no task for this in the workshop task menu; instead it will be done automatically if it isn't disabled in the {{key|o}}rder-{{key|W}} menu. Unlike butchering {{L|corpse}}s, slaughtering occurs the instant the {{L|butcher}} brings the {{L|animal}} to the shop, and so is not affected by the butcher's skill level, agility, or {{L|workshop}} {{L|clutter}}.  Although slaughtering is not affected by experience, it does provide experience in the {{L|butcher}} skill.  If you have many excess animals, you can slaughter them for gains in food, bones, skins, experience and frame rate.  

Butchers also do the dirty job of processing animal corpses and body parts for {{L|meat}}, {{L|fat}}, {{L|skin}}, {{L|bone}}s, and {{L|skull}}s at the butcher's shop. Higher skill allows them to process these corpses faster. A corpse doesn't have to be particularly close to the workshop to trigger the task, but it needs to be on a (refuse) {{L|stockpile}}.

A butcher's shop can also be used to catch {{L|vermin}} (like a {{L|kennel}}s) and make extracts from captured vermin.

==Tasks==
*{{k|b}}'''Butcher a dead animal'''
Renders a dead animal into its component parts of {{L|meat}}, {{L|fat}}, {{L|skin}}, {{L|bone}}s, and {{L|skull}}s. Usually used on animals that your {{L|hunter}} brings back.

*{{k|e}}'''Extract from a dead animal'''
Requires a caged {{L|fire snake}} or {{L|cave spider}} and {{L|Animal dissector|trapping}}. Contrary to the name of the task, the vermin must be alive (though it will be dead once the task is done).
Produces {{L|Fire snake|liquid fire}} and {{L|venom}}, respectively.

*{{k|a}}'''Capture a live land animal'''
Requires an {{L|animal trap}} and {{L|trapping}}.
The trapper will take the trap and chase vermin until it catches one.

==Tips==
* Slaughtering produces a lot of products that go to a variety of {{L|stockpile}}s, and will quickly rot if they don't get stored or processed. Meat and fat go to your food stockpile, while bones, skulls, chunks, and raw hides need a {{L|refuse}} stockpile or a clear path to the {{L|chasm}}. Setting up appropriate and proximate stockpiles can speed production and reduce {{L|clutter}} in the butcher's shop.
* Food {{L|hauling}} is typically a low-priority {{L|job}}, and meat rots quickly if not in a stockpile - have ample dwarves (mostly) dedicated to food hauling for the jobs you produce, or your freshly butchered meat may go to waste.
* Butchering just one dog, a typical size 5 {{L|creature}}, will create 5 meat, 5 chunks, 5 bones, 1 skull and 1 fat - 17 items, all at once, and your butcher's shop is instantly mired into the 1st level of {{L|clutter}}, with the next task taking 2x as long as it should.  Larger animals (most {{L|domestic animal}}s are size 8-10) produce much more, creating x4 or x5 clutter delays. Therefore, it's recommended that you not only have nearby stockpiles and ample haulers, but ''multiple'' butcher's shops to distribute the workload of butchering numerous animals, each handling one in turn as the previous shop is cleared out, ready for the next job.  (As an extreme alternative, deconstructing the butcher's shop and then rebuilding it will scatter the contents on the ground and outside - where they'll quickly rot unless hauled.) Some animals travel in herds of as many as 10, and multiple herds are possible.
* Create custom stockpiles for raw hides close to your {{L|tanner's shop}} (see ''{{L|Meat industry#Tanning|Tanning}}'') and build your tanner's shop next to your butcher's shop.   Create custom stockpiles for bones and skulls close to your {{L|craftsdwarf's workshop}} (see ''{{L|Meat Industry#Bone carving|Bone carving}}''), and change the settings on your general refuse pile(s) to ''not'' accept hides, bones or skulls.
* Slaughtering will produce {{L|chunk}}s, which have no use. They will just rot in your refuse pile. It is advisable to take measures to ward off {{L|thoughts|unhappy thoughts}} generated by {{L|miasma}}, such as building your butcher's shops outside or surrounding them with multiple layers of doors.
* If your butcher's shop is outdoors and you have the "Dwarves ignore refuse from outside" option set, refuse will stay in the shop. Chunks will rot away and hides will be tanned (if you have a tanner's shop), but the bones and skulls will build up, making the butcher's shop more and more {{L|Clutter|cluttered}}.

==See also==
*{{L|Meat industry}}
*{{L|Butcher|Butchery skill}} 

{{Workshops}}