There are plenty of animals to acquire in Stardew Valley, and each provides a variety of different goods the player can make a profit off of. Stardew Valley's chickens are probably one of the most basic farm animals and probably the type of animal players will first acquire when playing the game.

stardew valley logo and crops
Stardew Valley Beginner Guide: Crop Quality, Explained

Farming is essential in Stardew Valley but getting crops to reach their highest quality level can be a significant challenge.

There are several different varieties of chickens to obtain, and this guide will cover how to get the blue chickens – a relatively rare version of regular chickens that don't really have any benefits except a different color palette.

Updated August 3, 2023 by Erik Petrovich: There aren't too many unique models of animals that players can house on their Ranch, but chickens actually do have a few alternate looks. The Void Chicken is easy to get by progressing through the mines, but to get a blue chicken Stardew has a bit of a more involved process. After getting a coop on their farm, progressing Shane's friendship heart significantly, then finally players have a small chance to get buy blue chickens in Stardew – there is a way to "cheat" the system, though. By buying chickens from Marnie, and re-naming them, players can guarantee that they will get a blue chicken by simply re-rolling its appearance over and over again. Read on to find out exactly how to get blue chickens in Stardew Valley.

Build A Coop & Add Regular Chickens To The Farm

Farmer in field outside of chicken coop.

Starting with the basics, players will need to obtain a coop before they can own and raise any chickens in Stardew Valley. First, collect 300 pieces of wood, 100 stone, and a total of 4,000 Gold to spend. Speak to Robin about building a coop on the farm after meeting these requirements. She can be found at her house a screen north of Pelican Town.

mod
Stardew Valley: How to Cook

Cooking in Stardew Valley allows players to use their crops and animal products as ingredients in a variety of helpful and yummy recipes.

She will then ask the player to choose where on the farm to build the coop. It will take her three days to finish construction on the coop. White and brown chickens can then be purchased from Marnie. One chicken costs 800 Gold, making it the cheapest Ranch animal in the game.

After buying chickens, make sure they have an outside area with plenty of grass to munch on. It can take some effort to manage a coop in Stardew Valley successfully at first, especially with all of the petting and feeding that players must do every day – and the more chickens one has, the more mouths there are to feed, and more feathers to be rustled.

Befriend Shane By Reaching Eight Hearts

Stardew Valley Shane
Stardew Valley Shane

Befriending Shane may seem largely unrelated to the idea of obtaining a new variety of chicken, but it is a requirement for unlocking blue chickens. Blue chickens will become available to the player after they trigger Shane's 8-heart event. In order to increase their relationship with Shane, players can gift him Loved and Liked gifts. Doing this on his birthday, Spring 20, will give players an even bigger friendship boost.

Shane's Hated Gifts (AVOID)

Shane's Liked Gifts

Shane's Loved Gifts

Most foraged items

All Fruits

Pizza

Seaweed

All Eggs, but not Void Eggs and Dinosaur Eggs

Hot Pepper

Quartz

All Universal Likes, but not Pickles

Beer

Universal Dislikes

Pepper Poppers

Universal Hates

One of the easiest ways to consistently increase the relationship with him is to head to the Stardrop Saloon in the evening, where he will come to drink after his shift at the JojaMart. Players can buy him a beer at the bar counter by speaking with Gus for the price of 400 gold.

Gus also sells pizza for 600 gold for players who don't mind splurging a bit. It's also possible to catch Shane before his JojaMart shift, walking through Pelican Town, which makes him an easy target for friendship. It's actually possible to reach full Friendship with Shane before the end of the first year with the right strategy, just be prepared to buy a lot of beer and pizza.

Shane's Heart Events

stardew-valley-shane-1

Shane's Heart Events are some of the game's most devastating as players can do little to watch him spiral out of control with his drinking problem. After one of the game's saddest cutscenes, Shane's final Heart Scene feels much more hopeful.

skull cavern stardew valley
Stardew Valley: Tips For Making It To Level 100 in Skull Cavern

Reaching level 100 in Skull Cavern is no easy quest in Stardew Valley, but these tips should help players get started.

In order to get blue chickens in Stardew Valley, players need to reach the full Eight Hearts with Shane. These are the times and locations needed to activate Shane's heart events when he reaches the respective heart level:

Heart Total

How To Trigger Heart Event

Two Hearts

Enter the forest south of the player farm from 8 pm to 12 am.

Four Hearts

Enter Marnie's ranch; the time of day doesn't matter.

Six Hearts:

Enter the forest south of the player's farm while it is raining between 9 am and 8 pm.

Seven Hearts

Part 1: Enter Marnie's Ranch when Shane is home after seeing the six-heart event.

Part 2: Enter the town while it is sunny between 10 am and 4 pm. Clint and Emily must also have two hearts for this event to trigger.

Eight Hearts

Enter Marnie's Ranch whenever Shane is home.

How To Get Blue Chickens in Stardew

stardew valley blue chickens

Once Shane's Eight Hearts event has been triggered, blue chickens will officially be available to the player. Previously, blue chickens could be hatched from brown or white chicken eggs, but this is no longer possible. Now, the only way to acquire them is by buying them from Marnie.

There is a 25% when buying that a new chicken will be blue, but there is also a trick: when she asks the player to name the new chicken, there will be a notice at the top of the screen that says the color of the chicken being named. If it's not blue, simply cancel the transaction and repeat until it says the chicken is blue.

Blue chickens are functionally identical to white chickens as there are no blue eggs. They simply produce white eggs as a white chicken would. Blue chickens are mainly just for appearances and bragging rights, but they do look much more flashy compared to their white and brown counterparts. The apparent flashiness of owning a blue chicken may rival owning a Stardew Valley ostrich.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
Stardew Valley Tag Page Cover Art
Display card tags widget
RPG
Simulation
Display card system widget
Systems
Display card community and brand rating widget Display card open critics widget
Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
Display card main info widget
Released
February 26, 2016
ESRB
E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco)
Developer(s)
ConcernedApe
Publisher(s)
ConcernedApe
Engine
Proprietary
Multiplayer
Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play
Stardew Valley does not currently support crossplay between different consoles and PC
Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Genre(s)
RPG, Simulation
Platform(s)
PC, Xbox One, Android, iOS, PS4, Switch
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty