I've been trying to develop my bases the most I can before going through progression bottlenecks like diamonds and the nether(mostly because I'm a chickenshit).
After some pondering about renewable food, and falling in love with the campfire+cauldron realized that chickens are actually still possible to maintain alive without torches, so long as you manage to prevent spiders to spawn in their pen and from outside spiders to reach them.
I've tried to make either mazelike or grid-like fenced areas, but it seems that spiders either can reach the chickens from atop the fence, or are somehow sneaking in-between the grid fences.
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EDIT: also, do cows regenerate from eating?