It's most likely that chickens will be the first animal you'll have to take care of in Stardew Valley. They're simple animals, as long as they're happy they'll produce eggs every day that you can then turn into Mayonnaise, the happier you keep them the more likely they are to produce high-quality eggs. And what do they need to be happy? Not much actually, they just need to be fed and they require social interaction once a day.
RELATED: Stardew Valley: How To Make Truffle OilThere are three ways to feed your chickens, we'll walk you through them so you can decide how to use them according to your resources and the current season in-game.
Feeding Chickens
The only day that you don't have to worry about feeding your in-game chickens is the day on which they hatch and the day you purchase them. From then on you will always have to feed and pet them so their happiness doesn't decrease and so they won't stop producing eggs. You can use eggs to then make and sell mayonnaise. If you'd like to know how much it sells for as well as other artisan goods, check out our guide that lists the price of all artisan goods.
Grass
Grass is what chickens love to eat the most. If they have grass available to them, they'll choose it over hay. You can feed your chickens grass by planting some grass starter outside and letting it spread so there's enough food for all of them. Then, open the coop door so they can get outside and they'll happily enjoy it.
Unfortunately, chickens don't go outside in the Winter and grass doesn't grow during this season either so that's when you'll have to resort to feeding them hay.
Hay
The other alternative is hay. It's important to always have some hay saved for winter, and in case you run out of grass for the chickens to eat on your farm. There are two ways of getting hay.
You can get hay by purchasing it from Marnie's Ranch. Her ranch is located on the northeastern side of Cindersap Forest and it's open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., every day except Mondays, Tuesdays, Fall 18, and Winter 18. She sells each piece of hay for 50 gold. This can get quite expensive so you might want to consider getting a silo before Winter starts.
Another way to get hay is by asking Robin to build you a silo. This way you can collect your own hay. This will save you a lot of money once winter comes. There is a 50 percent chance that you'll harvest 1 Hay when cutting grass with a Scythe, 75 percent if you're using a Golden Scythe. The hay will automatically be moved to the silo. There is also a 40 percent chance to get hay if you're harvesting Wheat.
Once you've gotten yourself some hay, you can get it from the Hay Hopper (if you own a silo, otherwise it'll be in your inventory) and then you can grab the hay and put it in the Feeding Bench, each chicken needs 1 Hay per day. The Deluxe Coop unlocks the auto-feeding feature that will do this automatically until the silo is empty.
NEXT: Stardew Valley: How To Farm Ore
