To collect sticks, either the Farmer Player or trained bots can use a Mallet to hit Pine Trees which will make sticks fall to the ground. Sticks on the ground can be collected and stored in bins and then used for building the Cauldron, the Besom Broom, the Crude Torch, and the Crude Basket. Sticks can also be used as the fuel for Steam Bots and for the Crude Oven.
Since the Crude Oven is used for making so many different foods, I have found that I needed lots of bots using Mallets on Pine Trees to knock down lots of Sticks and I needed lots of bots to put those Sticks into the Bins, as shown below. I trained 10 bots to walk in circles to a group of trees to quickly knock down lots of Sticks.