Everything to Know about chickens in stardew valley

In the beginnings of every new save, one of the very first quests that farmers get is to build a coop from Robin’s carpenter shop. More than likely your first little animal friend, other than your dog or cat, will be the adorable chicken. Despite its cheapness and simpleness, chickens can become a true money maker throughout your game. Especially when taken care of correctly and discovering different types such as void and golden chickens! In this guide, each type will be gone over, as well as how to best utilize these humble birds on your farm.

Building Your Silo

One of the most important tips for any new player is to build a silo before the coop. The silo will allow you to use your scythe in order to cut grass that you will see around your farm. This is why it is also good to avoid cutting any grass until after your silo is built. Silos are relatively cheap to make and can be placed anywhere on your farm. There is a 50% chance that every piece of grass that you cut will be turned to hay, which is used to feed any type of livestock that you have.

You can check how much hay you have gathered by interacting with the silo itself. The more silos you build, the more hay you can store as each holds 240 pieces. Make sure you always have hay stocked up, especially in preparation for Winter, as no grass will grow during that season. If you do not have enough hay during the winter, you will have to buy hay from Marnie’s Ranch. Hay from Marnie’s Ranch is 50g a piece. Marnie’s Ranch is closed every Monday and Tuesday making it very cumbersome.

	Cost	Clay	Stone	Copper Bars
Silo	100g	10	100	5

Feeding

To best decide where to build your coop, try to pick a spot where there will be plenty of space for grass to grow. There is a small door on every barn and coop that when interacted with can open, allowing all animals inside to come out and freely walk around as long as it isn’t raining. When your animals are outside, they are able to eat any grass that they are able to reach. Each animal is able to eat one piece for the day. This not only saves the amount of hay that you have, but letting your animals out gives them bonus friendship points. However, be sure to have your animals back inside before going to bed, as not only does it decrease their points, but there is also a chance that a wild animal attack can occur overnight, causing one of your animals to be eaten!

When not grazing, whether during a rainy day, Winter, or through your own choice, you will need to fill the feeding bench. This is done by interacting with the hay hopper, in which depending on how many animals are in your coop or barn, the amount of hay will be given. For example, if there are three chickens in your coop, you will be given three pieces of hay from the hopper. Once you upgrade to a Deluxe Coop, the hopper will fill the bench automatically every morning. This way it’ll be less likely to forget to keep your loving animals well-fed.

Petting

A lot of players tend to believe that petting your animals every day isn’t necessary, but that is a myth. While it may seem harmless not to pet all of your animals each day, it can actually decrease the level of friendship that you have with them! This is very important to keep in mind since petting is very easy through just interacting with an animal as you would to check their mood and information. A heart prompt will appear to show that you have petted them, giving you free and easy friendship points. Once you get later into the game, you can also acquire auto-petters to place in barns or coops which make petting automatic each day, which is very useful if you have many animals on your farm. Auto-petter’s can be achieved through skull cavern treasure rooms or at Joja Mart if you choose to complete their warehouse (But who would ever do that?)

Friendship and What It Affects

Friendship levels just like with the villagers you meet in Pelican Town are very important with the animals you raise. The level affects both the produce quality and how much the animals themselves sell for. Below is a chart showing each action that you can make with your animals and how many friendship points each is worth. There are five hearts to fill with each animal, with one equivalent to 200 points and max hearts being 1,000.

White & Brown Chickens

Both white and brown chickens sell for 800g at Marnie’s Ranch. Whether you receive a white or brown chicken is completely random, but that will not affect their produce’s sell price. The only thing that it will affect is simply the color of the eggs (For variety of course!).

Each day a brown or white egg, depending on the chicken, will be laid. Once a sufficient amount of friendship is made, large eggs will be laid instead which sell for higher profit. By the time you reach maximum friendship, your chickens will be producing large gold or iridium quality eggs. However, it is always a good idea to craft a mayonnaise machine at Farming level 2 and place your eggs in them for even more of a profit, taking only 3 in-game hours with its quality dependent on the eggs placed. Below is a chart listing the base selling price of the eggs and mayonnaise.

	Brown/White Egg	Large Brown/White Egg	Mayonnaise
Normal Quality	50g	95g	190g
Silver Quality	62g	118g	237g
Gold Quality	75g	142g	285g
Iridium Quality	100g	190g	380g

Blue Chickens

Blue chickens work the exact same as regular white and brown chickens, but they hold significant story to Shane. Not to mention its cute and unique design. Once you reach a sufficient friendship, you will be able to view Shane’s 8-heart event, unlocking the 1/4th chance of every chicken purchased by Marnie to be blue. Blue chickens also have the chance to be hatched from the incubator after the Big Coop upgrade.

Void Chickens

Void chickens are arguably one of the best and most profitable coop animals in the game(before 1.5) and with its cool red-eyed design, is a fan favorite among many. Void eggs and mayonnaise are incredibly profitable especially when taking advantage of the incubator to maximize the amount of daily eggs. In order to get one of these lovable demon birds, the easiest way is to unlock the Sewers through receiving the Rusty Key from Gunther after donating 60 items to the museum. This gives you access to Krobus, who will sell you an unlimited amount of void eggs every day for 5,000g. While in the early game this price tag can seem intimidating, the grind is definitely worth it. Once you buy at least one egg, place it in an incubator in a coop you wish to have your chicken in. After four days, the egg will hatch and will mature into an adult after 3-6 days depending on your profession.

Now there are other ways to achieve this feathered friend, but they are much more RNG based.

• A 1% chance every night that a cutscene showing a witch casting a spell over a coop will play, leaving a void egg inside the next day
• If married to Shane, there is a small chance he may gift you a void egg
• A Void Salmon fish pond may produce a void egg when its population reaches level 9

	Void Egg	Void Mayonnaise
Normal Quality	65g	275g
Silver Quality	81g	N/A
Gold Quality	97g	N/A
Iridium Quality	130g	N/A

Golden Chickens

Golden chickens were introduced in the 1.5 update with Ginger Island. While these are one of the most profitable animals, they are also one of, if not the hardest, animals to achieve. This is due to the fact that you will need to achieve 100% Perfection which is tracked by Mr. Qi in his walnut room. Once reached, a golden egg can be bought for 100 Qi gems. When placed in an incubator after a few days, a golden chicken will hatch. When mature it will lay even more golden eggs daily. These eggs sell for lots of gold with its base price at 500g! It is very lucrative, especially when increasing the amount of these chickens. You can also place these eggs in mayonnaise machines which will produce three golden quality mayonnaise after 3 hours.

	Golden Egg
Normal Quality	500g
Silver Quality	625g
Gold Quality	750g
Iridium Quality	1,000g