How to Get Chickens in Stardew Valley | Full Guide 2022

At the beginning of your Stardew Valley gameplay, a Chicken is probably one of the first few barn animals you’ll get. They’re profitable. They lay eggs, which you can sell, cook, or make into Mayonnaise. But how can you get them? In this article, you’ll find out!

Buying Chicken from Marnie
You can buy up to four Chickens for your first Coop!

Despite being one of the first animals you can own in Stardew Valley, Chickens can be pretty profitable. Their eggs alone help cook and make other items in the game, like Mayonnaise. The best way to enjoy these benefits is by feeding them well, caring for them, and keeping them in their best Mood.

However, you can’t simply buy Chickens and raise them without some things that help fulfill their needs. This way, you can easily do what you need to reap their benefits. You’ll find everything you need to know about them in this guide!

Important Questions

What are Chickens?

They’re farm animals that can lay eggs daily. The color of a chicken can come in white or brown, and they sell for 50g. It’s up to you whether you’ll sell them or wait for their eggs, which come once you’ve developed a good friendship with them.

How to Get Chickens?

Getting them is simple but takes time, patience, and effort. If you’re up for that, read ahead to get that well-deserved poultry. Below are the steps to get them.

  1. Have Robin Build a Silo.

Before you construct a coop, build a Silo. Making this first may be optional, but it is beneficial. This farm building is where you store Hay to feed the animals in your coop. It requires fewer resources than the other buildings and is just a two-day process.

Unlike other buildings, it requires fewer resources which include Gold (100), Stone (100), Clay (10), and Copper Bar (5). This building will help you store plenty of food before you even get your first animal.

  1. Have a Coop Built.

Once you have a Silo, ask Robin at the Carpenter shop to build a Coop. You’ll need to have one built on your farm for a chicken to live in it.

Coop with no Chickens
Now you can get Chickens!

It comes in different sizes, which have varying capacities that start small. But as you upgrade it, that capacity will increase along with the size. Every player starts with the smallest one. The table below indicates some information you need to know about these upgrades.

SizeRequirementsCapacityFeatures
Small●4000g
●Wood (300)
●Stone (100)
4●Hay Hopper
●Feeding Bench
Big●10,000g
●Wood (400)
●Stone (150)
8●Incubator
●Hay Hopper
●Feeding Bench
Deluxe●20,000g
●Wood (500)
●Stone (200)
12●Auto Feed System
●Incubator
●Hay Hopper
●Feeding Bench

A chicken is the only animal you can raise in a four-capacity dwelling. In the future, you’ll be able to upgrade it to Big and, eventually, Deluxe. With every upgrade, more animals become accessible.

  1. Get Your First Chicken. 

There are multiple ways to get your first poultry, such as purchasing or hatching. You may also obtain them through certain events.

The following are how you can get them:

  • Purchase them from Marnie’s Ranch. 

Each white or brown hen sells at 800g at Marnie’s Ranch, located in the Northeast area of the forest. The ranch is open daily from 9 AM to 4 PM except for Mondays and Tuesdays.

First, they should lay an egg, which you can ensure by feeding them daily. Immediately feeding new hatchlings isn’t necessary, but you can feed them the next day so they can mature.

Adult chickens will start laying every morning from the fourth day after purchase or hatching. Afterward, you can incubate their eggs in the Incubator. Unfortunately, this feature is only accessible when you level up your little coop to Big or Deluxe. Put it in the Incubator and wait for less than seven days for it to hatch.

How to Get Special Events Chicken?

Like the Blue Chicken, you can obtain the Void and Golden kind via events. This time, you acquire their eggs initially. 

You’ll receive the Void Egg (V.E.) through an event for those with a Big or Deluxe Coop. A Witch will fly over the dwelling overnight and leave it there. Note that this occurs only at any point when it isn’t at total capacity. Alternatively, you can buy VE at The Sewers from Krobus for 5000g.

On the other hand, the Golden Egg (G.E.) is an endgame item, so you must reach a hundred percent Perfection to get it from the Witch. To know if you’re eligible to get it, you can check your progress at Qi’s Walnut Room. It’s also up for grabs at Marnie’s for 100,000g.

Similarly, you can incubate V.E. and G.E. as you do their regular counterparts. Choose the Coopmaster Profession at the max Farming skill to cut the incubation time in half. 

After collecting eight Friendship hearts with Shane, enter Marnie’s Ranch while he’s home to trigger the eight-heart event. Following this, every white or brown egg that you hatch or buy from Marnie has a possibility of being a blue chick. 

Later, he may also give you a V.E. if you marry him.

How to Collect Friendship Hearts?

A great friendship with your animals would benefit your farming. You can view the Friendship rating by right-clicking the animal after petting it. Since they can get sick of eating Hay, let them outside to eat Grass to get friendship points. 

The Friendship rating includes five hearts, where half of each heart is 100 points. In total, all five hearts have 1000 points. These are how your points will be affected by each action:

  • Petting. +15 or +30 points if you have a Shepherd or Coopmaster profession.
  • Eating Grass Outdoors. +8 points.
  • Milking or Shearing. +5 points. There won’t be a deduction if you don’t milk or shear them.
  • Not Feeding. -20 points by the end of the day.
  • No Petting/Talking. -5 to 10 points by the day’s end. (10 – (Current Friendship / 200))
  • Locking them out overnight. -20 points by the end of the day.

Similarly, Mood is a factor that affects an animal product’s quality. To maintain their good Mood, always pet them and let them roam free outdoors daily. Keeping them indoors when there’s rain and warm during winter gives them a mood boost. Warm them up in the coldest season by having a Heater in their home.

The Mood score is between 0 to 255. If it says that the animal looks happy at the start of the day, it means its Mood is at 200 or 250. Otherwise, if it says it looks fine, its Mood would be between 30 and 200. But if it says that the animal seems sad, the Mood is between 0 to 30.

These actions increase Mood and the points added to them:

  • Eating Grass Outside. The Mood will be at 255
  • Feeding the Animals. This action will give you an additional 4 to 16 points, depending on the type of animal.
  • Petting the Animals. +32 to +36 points depending on the type of animal. You get twice the amount of points if you have the Shepherd or the Coopmaster Profession.
  • Putting the animal with a mood of 150 in an area with a Heater during winter. +4 to +8 points every ten minutes if you stay awake past 6 PM.
  • Let the animal Out between 6 PM and 7 PM with a mood less than 150. +4 to +8 per ten minutes.

Facts and Trivia

Feeding Chickens

Feeding your chickens requires a few materials for harvesting the food they eat, mainly Hay. You can purchase it, but gathering from your surroundings is possible. It also helps to have a grass field on the farm since they consume them.

Feeding Chickens
The Chickens won’t feed themselves.

Marnie  sells Hay at 50g each. You’ll need one Omni Geode for trading to get three pieces of it from the Desert Trader. You can also harvest it from Grass or Wheat using the Scythe. Cultivate Wheat seeds. Once it’s ready, you can reap the forage.

Moreover, unlocking the Quarry gives you the Golden Scythe, which yields more than the other tool. Once Robin has built the Silo, every Grass cut with a Scythe has half a chance of becoming Hay. But you’ll have a better chance at that using the Golden Scythe.

Nonetheless, you can cut the weeds with a Melee weapon enchanted with Haymaker to guarantee it’ll turn to Hay. After harvest, the Grass goes into the Silo for storage.

By the time you’ll feed them, take it from the hay hopper where it’s stored and put it on top of the feeding bench so the birds can eat it. If you don’t have Silo, it’ll go to the inventory. You don’t have to worry about it once you’ve upgraded to Deluxe with its Autofeed System.

Unfortunately, these birds can also get bored eating the same food daily. Give them variety by letting them out of the enclosure to find Grass they can eat.

They’ll come back at five in the afternoon. Make sure the animals are all inside before closing the door to avoid leaving one of them behind. Consequently, leaving them makes them grumpy and vulnerable to the wild, which affects your Friendship rating with them.

Remember: Hoard enough food to feed them during winter. Grass will be gone by Fall 28 and throughout all of winter. During this season, there’s nothing for them to eat outdoors like usual.

Caring for them makes no difference, no matter the appearance of the fowl. Although the blue variety is more visible in the Grass, making them easier to pet. Fall into the habit of taking good care of these animals to develop a good cycle of productivity with them.

It’s important to note that Void Chickens take six days to mature. The Coopmaster Profession will grow them for half that amount of time.

Artisan Goods

The egg this animal lays makes Mayonnaise; an inedible Artisan Good made with the Mayonnaise Machine. Aside from the standard mayo made from small brown or white eggs, you can make some of them into their types of mayo. The procedure takes three hours.

Selling Prices

You can make a profit by selling them as they are. A good friendship with your farm animals increases your earnings as well. Furthermore, more hearts on Friendship or Mood interference grow their selling price. One maximum-heart Chicken alone can sell for 1,040g.

The mood interference can be viewed by right-clicking the animal after petting it. Hover over the gold coin button to find out its value. Finish the sale by clicking the button and confirming that you’ll sell it.

Similarly, you may also sell its products. The table below entails the prices an egg sells for depending on its size.

QualityNormalLarge (L.E.)L.E. with RancherVoid (V.E.)V.E. with RancherGolden (G.E.)G.E. with Rancher
Normal50g95g114g65g78g500g600g
Silver62g118g114g81g97g625g750g
Gold75g142g170g97g116g750g900g
Iridium100g190g228g130g156g1000g1200g

The Rancher Profession adds 20% of the base selling price to the price of each type of egg.

Tailoring

Although no type of tailoring utilizes it, its egg is usable on the Sewing Machine. Make dyeable Plain Overalls by using the regular-sized ones. The large ones are for creating the dyeable Cardigan. The V.E. is used to create a Shirt. 

Gifting

The majority of the townspeople are neutral about its egg. Many of them like it. Avoid giving it to Haley, Abigail, Dwarf, Jas, Pam, Vincent, Wizard, and most importantly, Sebastian, who usually hates it. 

The villagers have a general distaste toward the V.E. except for Krobus and Sebastian. Meanwhile, its golden counterpart makes a decent gift for many NPCs.

Cooking

You can’t cook these farm animals, but you can use their products to produce dishes. It’s not just hatching that you can do with eggs. 

You may use Qi Seasoning (Q.S.), which you can buy from Qi’s Walnut Room for 10 Qi gems, to improve the food’s quality to Gold. 

Additionally, it increases its sell price by 50% and its healing effects by 80%. 

Except for the Speed buffs, Q.S. also increases its given Buffs by one. As a result, it lengthens the Buff’s duration by 50%.

Below is a table of the food you can make:

RecipeIngredientsEnergyEnergy w Q.S.HealthHealth w QSBuff +DurationBuff +Duration w Q.S.Selling PriceSelling Price w Q.S.Recipe Source
Fried Egg●Egg (1)+50+90+22+4035g52gUpgrade farmhouse
Omelet●Milk (1)
●Egg (1)
+100+180+45+81125g187gStardrop Saloon for 100gThe Queen of Sauce 28 Spring, Year 1
Pancakes●Wheat Flour (1)
●Egg (1)
+90+162+40+72+2 Foraging (11m 11s)+3 Foraging (16m 47s)80g120gThe Queen of Sauce 14 Summer, Year 1Stardrop Saloon for 100g
Chocolate Cake●Wheat Flour (1)
●Egg (1)
●Sugar (1)
+150+270+67+121200g300gThe Queen of Sauce 14 Winter, Year 1
Pink Cake●Wheat Flour (1)
●Melon (1)
●Egg (1)
●Sugar (1)
+250+450+112+202480g720gThe Queen of Sauce 21 Summer, Year 2
Blueberry Tart●Blueberry (1)
●Wheat Flour (1)
●Egg (1)
●Sugar (1)
+125+225+56+101150g225gReach 3 hearts with Pierre
Cookie●Egg (1)
●Wheat Flour (1)
●Sugar (1)
+90+162+40+72140g210gView Evelyn’s 4-heart event
Crab Cakes●Crab (1)
●Egg (1)
●Wheat Flour (1)
●Oil (1)
+225+405+101+182+1 Speed+1 Defense (16m 7s)+1 Speed+2 Defense (24m 10s)275g412gThe Queen of Sauce 21 Fall, Year 2
Coleslaw●Mayo (1)
●Red Cabbage (1)
●Vinegar (1)
+213+383+95+172345g517gThe Queen of Sauce 14 Spring, Year 1
Fish Taco●Mayo (1)
●Tuna (1)
●Red Cabbage (1)
●Tortilla (1)
+165+297+74+133+2 Fishing (7m)+3 Fishing (10m 30s)500g750gReach over 7 hearts with Linus

Bundles

No bundle includes this animal. But, ten of its eggs are in the Home Cook’s Bundle. Meanwhile, you can use L.E. on the Animal Bundle in the Pantry.

Quests

 There are no quests for this animal. Some Quests like the following use its products:

  • Random Quests on the “Help Wanted” board outside Pierre’s General Store. The egg may be randomly requested for 150g and 150 Friendship points during any season unless you only have White or Brown Chickens.
  • Goblin Problem quest. Make Void Mayo with the V.E. to bribe the Henchman in the Witch’s Swamp.
  • Fish Pond quest. Void Salmon might request one V.E. to increase the pond’s capacity.

Meet the author

Greetings! I'm Jannah, your freelancing maestro for all things Stardew Valley. In the realms of pixels and harvests, my game guides unfold like magical scrolls, revealing the secrets to turn your virtual farm into a masterpiece. Join me in this interactive symphony, where each note is a tip, and every chapter is an adventure. Let the Stardew Valley saga begin, with me as your guide through the enchanting pixels of prosperity

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