Stardew Valley: How to Feed Chickens

There are many different animals that players can raise in Stardew Valley. Out of all them, chickens are most likely many players' first animal in-game due to the relative cheapness of a coop made only for chickens.

Chickens in Stardew Valley produce eggs and big eggs. The size and quality of these eggs are dependent on the happiness of each chicken, which is affected by if they're fed, warm, and pet by the player. Feeding the chickens however can be a mystery for newer players to the game.

Updated April 23rd, 2025 by Renri Seong: Now that the Nintendo Switch version of Stardew Valley has been updated to 1.6, there have been many changes added to the gameplay that were originally exclusive to the PC version. Among these changes was a new farm layout called the Meadowlands Farm, which made it easier to raise animals and make a good profit within the first month. There's also a new type of feed for chickens called blue grass. Even if you continue from a pre-existing file, there are still ways to get blue grass for your animals. With 1.6 available everywhere, there are more reliable ways to feed chickens and your other coop-animals. The following guide has been updated to reflect Stardew Valley 1.6 including sell prices for eggs and mayonnaise.

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How to Get Chickens in Stardew Valley

What Do Chickens Eat?

Before you can get chickens, you'll need to build a Coop. Y ou'll need to go to the Carpenter's Store, which is in the Mountains (north of Pelican Town), and have one built on your farm. Coops will require the following materials and cost:

• 4000g
• x300 Wood
• x100 Stone

A regular Coop will hold up to 4 chickens. If you want to buy ducks and other animals, you're going to need to upgrade your coop to a Big Coop. From a Big Coop, you can upgrade to a Deluxe Coop, which houses 12 animals.

To open up a coop or any animal holding farm building, you need to interact with the small, vertical door on the front side of the building. As long as it isn't raining or the season isn't winter, animals will leave the coop to eat and wander about your farm. At 6:00pm, all animals will return to their respective buildings, which you can then close the doors. However, make sure you don't lock any of your animals outside over night. Doing so puts them at risk of being eaten by wild animals.

To ensure you're getting eggs and other animal products from your Coop/Barn animals, you need to feed them. Stardew Valley farm animals will eat grass or hay. Here's how to ensure you have a supply of both:

Grass

The grass that animals eat are the long green stalks growing around your farm, not the small weeds that drop mixed seeds. As long as there's grass within the coop/barn range, your animals will eat.

If you're short on grass, you can buy the Grass Starter crafting recipe from Pierre for 1000g. You can also buy Grass Starter for 100g, but it's better to start out with the recipe. Your character will plant x1 Grass Starter for x1 Tile.

To make x1 Grass Starter with the crafting recipe, you'll need x10 Fiber, which drops from cutting weeds.

As of 1.6, wild grass stays year long on your farm. However, keep in mind that your animals won't go outside during winter. Your best bet is to either cut down the grass or leave it for the spring season.

Hay

The other option for chicken food is hay. Hay can be purchased from Marnie for 50g a piece, or you can harvest it from the long grass with a scythe. Before you start cutting down grass, you'll need a Silo. You can one from Robin for 100g, x100 Stone, x10 Clay, x5 Copper Bar. If you cut grass without the Silo, you won't get any hay from it.

How to Get Blue Grass

Meadowlands Farm, Blue Grass Crafting Recipe

In 1.6, a new farm layout was added to Stardew Valley. The Meadowlands Farm starts you with one Coop and two chickens instead of the x15 Parsnip Seeds from Lewis. A new type of grass, Blue Grass, grows on the Meadowlands Farm. Unlike the regular Grass Starter, Blue Grass doubles the friendship points when consumed by an animal. You should refrain from cutting it when you're just starting out.

The Blue Grass Starter crafting recipe can be obtained through Qi's Walnut Room on Ginger Island. You'll need 40 Qi Gems. To craft Blue Grass, you'll need these ingredients:

• x25 Fiber
• x10 Moss
• x1 Mystic Syrup

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How to Feed Chickens Hay In Stardew Valley

How to Get a Silo

In order to feed the chickens hay, you will need to place the hay in the feeding trough at the back of the coop. If you want to use hay from the silos on their Stardew Valley farm, you can get it from the box of hay located in the top left corner of the coop. Extra Hay can be returned to the silo through this box.

During winter or rainy days, you will need to make sure you have hay placed in the feeders for your animals. Once you upgrade to the Deluxe Barn/Coop, it'll come with a built-in Auto-Feeder. As long as there's hay in the silo, the feeders will restock themselves each day.

How Much Do Eggs Sell For?

All Coop Animals that Lay Eggs in Stardew Valley

Chickens can be a vital resource, especially in the earlier seasons of Stardew Valley. Feeding chickens is necessary for getting better, upgraded qualities for their eggs. If you have a Big Coop or a Deluxe Coop, you can start getting other egg-laying animals, such as Ducks.

Here's a look at how much eggs sell for depending on quality:

Golden Chickens

If you achieve Perfection, then you can obtain Golden Chicken and thus, Golden Eggs. Once you have Perfection (which you can check in Qi's Walnut Room), you can get the first Golden Egg through any of the following:

• Buy from Marnie for 100000g.
• Buy from Qi's Walnut Room for 100 Qi Gems.
• A random event in which a Golden Witch will fly over your Coop after your character goes to sleep.
• Loot from treasure chests via fishing (0.12% chance).

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What Are Eggs Used For?

Eggs vs. Mayonnaise

Eggs can be given as gifts to the other characters in Stardew Valley. Depending on the type of egg, they can either be a Liked, Loved, or Hated gift. For example, Void Eggs are universally disliked by everyone except Krobus and Sebastian. You'll also need chicken eggs for certain recipes such as the Pink Cake or Complete Breakfast.

However, until you get the golden chicken or read the Treasure Appraisal Guide (Dinosaur Eggs), you'll get more money if you turn them into mayonnaise. You can do this by using a Mayonnaise Machine, which you'll get the crafting recipe for at Farming Level 2.

• Eggs, Large Eggs, Ostrich Eggs, and Golden Eggs all make regular Mayonnaise. The price depends on the quality of mayonnaise. If you use an Ostrich Egg to make mayonnaise, you'll get x10 Mayonnaise from one egg.
• Duck Mayonnaise is made from Duck Eggs and sells for 375g.
• Void Mayonnaise sells for 275g, which is lower than a gold-star regular Mayonnaise. You'll want to hold onto x1 Void Mayonnaise for an event that unlocks after completing the Community Center or Joja Membership.
• Dinosaur Mayonnaise sells for 800g, but you'll need one for the Movie Theater Junimo box if you took the Community Center route.

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Stardew Valley

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Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%

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Released

February 26, 2016

ESRB

E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco)

Developer(s)

ConcernedApe

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ConcernedApe

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Proprietary

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Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

Cross-Platform Play

Stardew Valley does not currently support crossplay between different consoles and PC

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