So, you’ve built your little coop and got some chickens on your farm in Stardew Valley but have no idea how to feed them.
You have probably left them starving since you can’t just give them any of the food you have collected throughout the game.
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Well, the game doesn’t explain this properly, but you will first need to get a different building to actually take care of your animals and feed them.
In Stardew Valley, the players are supposed to feed chickens hay, which you can only collect if you have a silo on the farm.
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What to Feed Chickens in Stardew Valley
The only thing that you can feed chickens in Stardew Valley is hay. However, as long as you haven’t built a silo on your farm, you probably don’t even have any idea how to get this item.
You can’t give them any other food, such as seeds, since the game uses a special feeding mechanic for all animals, which requires hay.
Players can also feed chickens by opening up their coop and allowing them to walk outside. If there is tall grass close to the coop, they will eat that instead of hay. They will also get a happiness bonus from this.
How to Get Hay in Stardew Valley
So, before you think about spending money on getting chickens or any other animals in Stardew Valley, you will need to build a silo.
You can get this building by going to the Carpenter’s Shop, talking to Robin at the counter, selecting the “Construct Farm Buildings” option, and choosing to build the silo. Players will need 100 g, 100 stone, 10 clay, and 5 copper bars to actually get the silo.
After two days, you should find your silo fully built on the farm. Now, you will be able to collect hay. To actually get hay, you just need to use your scythe on the grass along the farm.
You have a 50% chance to get hay for every tile of tall grass that you cut. This is why you should keep some grass patches in the early game, as they will become useful once you get a silo. The hay will teleport inside the silo. A single silo can hold 240 hay.
If there is no grass to cut on the farm, or you just haven’t gathered enough hay, you can also buy some from Marnie’s Ranch for 50 g a piece. However, you will have to personally place this hay inside the silo back at the farm.
Also, in the Summer and Fall, players can grow wheat, which has a 40% chance to also give hay when harvested. If you are already growing wheat for other reasons, this is a good way to gather some hay. The only problem with this method is that it isn’t extremely reliable.
How to Feed Chickens in Stardew Valley
Now that you have some hay, head over to the coop where you are holding your chickens. Once inside, go to the hay hopper (the brown item that looks like a furnace and is spilling out hay), interact with it to extract hay from it, and then place the hay on the spots to the right of the hopper.
If you have the basic coop with a 4-animal capacity, then you should have exactly 4 spots where you can place hay. You will have to do this every day to feed your chickens in Stardew Valley. Later in the game, you can get the deluxe coop, where hay will automatically be placed on the eating spots.
Here are also some tips to properly take care of and feed your chickens in Stardew Valley:
- Don’t build more silos. Just extract hay from the hay hopper in the coop and place the hay in a chest. This way, you won’t have to waste resources on dozens of silos.
- You don’t have to feed chickens on the day you bought them.
- Baby chickens need the same amount of food as mature chickens. They will mature if they are fed every day for 2 days, excluding the day they were bought.
- You can hatch eggs if you get the big coop using the incubator on the left. This way you won’t have to buy any more chickens from Marnie.
That’s everything you need to know about what to feed chickens in Stardew Valley!
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