Quick Links
- Building And Upgrading A Coop
- The Coops' Special Features Explained
- The Coop Animals
- Caring For Your Animals
Stardew Valley isn't all crops; farmers are able to raise animals, too! Though animals aren't raised for meat, they do produce eggs, wool, and more, allowing you to make a living.
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To keep smaller animals like Chickens on your farm, you'll need to build a coop — and upgrade it as your operation gets bigger. Whether you just built your first coop or are just trying to figure out if you're missing out on anything, this guide has the answers you're searching for.
Building And Upgrading A Coop
Building the Coop is a simple matter of collecting the right materials, saving up enough money, and visiting Robin when she's tending the desk at the Carpenter's Shop in the Mountains.
Coop Levels
| Coop | Big Coop | Deluxe Coop | |
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| Building Materials Required |
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| Number Of Animals It Can Hold | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| Kinds Of Animals It Can Hold |
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| Kinds Of Animals Unlocked |
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| Size | 6 spaces long, 3 spaces wide | 6 spaces long, 3 spaces wide | 6 spaces long, 3 spaces wide |
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The Coops' Special Features Explained
The Feeding Bench is the long wooden thing on the back wall of your coop and is used to (big surprise) feed your animals. Hay that you place on the bench will be consumed overnight by the animals who live in the Coop. The bench will change size each time you upgrade your Coop so that it can hold enough hay to feed the maximum number of animals that the building can hold.
A Hay Hopper is one of the items that come with the basic Coop. It allows you to access all your hay stored in the Silos on your farm.
An Incubator is added when you upgrade a Coop to a Big Coop. If you place Eggs in this Incubator, it'll hatch them into the associated animal.
| Egg Type | Time Until Hatching (minutes) | Time Until Hatching (days) |
|---|---|---|
| Egg (White) | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Egg (Brown) | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Large Egg (White) | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Large Egg (Brown) | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Void Egg | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Golden Egg | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Duck Egg | 9,000 | 6.25 |
| Dinosaur Egg | 18,000 | 12.5 |
The final upgrade you'll unlock — when you upgrade to a Deluxe Coop — is an Autofeed System. This means that, instead of having to go into each coop and place Hay on the Feeding Bench, Hay will be dispersed automatically as long as there's enough in your Silos.
The Coop Animals
Chicken
- How To Unlock And Obtain: Build your first Coop and then purchase from Marnie for 800g
- Produces: Every Day —Eggs (or Large Eggs, once sufficient friendship and happiness levels are reached)
- Associated Artisan Good(s): Mayonnaise, made by putting Eggs into Mayonnaise Machines
- Sell Price At Full Friendship: 1,040g
Chickens are an easy, no-nonsense animal to keep on your farm. They cost very little and can turn a massive profit.
| Type/Quality | Normal Quality Sell Price | Silver Quality Sell Price | Gold Quality Sell Price | Iridium Quality Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egg Brown Egg | 50g | 62g | 75g | 100g |
| Large Egg Large Brown Egg | 95g | 118g | 142g | 190g |
| Mayonnaise | 190g | 237g | 285g | 380g |
You may have seen other Stardew Valley players with Blue Chickens! To get these, you'll need to reach eight hearts of friendship with Shane and seen his eight-heart event. After that, there's a 25 percent chance each time you get a new Chicken (either buying it from Marnie or hatching it) that the Chicken will be blue. It's a purely aesthetic change — the Chicken doesn't produce blue eggs that are worth extra or anything like that.
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Duck
- How To Unlock And Obtain: Build your first Big Coop and then purchase from Marnie for 1,200g
- Produces: Every 2 Days — Duck Eggs (or Duck Feather, once sufficient friendship and happiness levels are reached)
- Associated Artisan Good(s): DuckMayonnaise, made by putting Duck Eggs into Mayonnaise Machines
- Sell Price At Full Friendship: 1,560g
The extra money you make per Duck Egg compared to Chicken Eggs is a little undercut by the fact that they will only lay a Duck Egg every two days. However, they're still a worthwhile investment for your farm!
| Type/Quality | Normal Quality Sell Price | Silver Quality Sell Price | Gold Quality Sell Price | Iridium Quality Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duck Egg | 95g | 118g | 142g | 190g |
| Duck Feather | 250g | 312g | 375g | 500g |
| Duck Mayonnaise | 375g | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Rabbit
- How To Unlock And Obtain: Build your first Deluxe Coop and then purchase from Marnie for 8,000g
- Produces: Every 4th Day — Wool (or Rabbit's Foot, once sufficient friendship and happiness levels are reached)
- Associated Artisan Good(s): Cloth, made by putting Wool into a Loom
- Sell Price At Full Friendship: 10,400g
Rabbits are for the more advanced Stardew Valley player since they don't turn around immediate profit quickly. However, if you can spare the income, they're great for getting a little extra wool!
| Type/Quality | Normal Quality Sell Price | Silver Quality Sell Price | Gold Quality Sell Price | Iridium Quality Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wool | 340g | 425g | 510g | 680g |
| Rabbit's Foot | 565g | 706g | 847g | 1,130g |
| Cloth | 470g | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Void Chicken
- How To Unlock And Obtain: Obtain a Void Egg (via Random Event or purchasing from Krobus) and incubate it in a Big or Deluxe Coop
- Produces: Every Day — Void Egg
- Associated Artisan Good(s): Void Mayonnaise, made by putting Void Eggs into Mayonnaise Machines
- Sell Price At Full Friendship: 1,040g
Void Chickens are probably the first strange animal species you'll come across in Stardew Valley! That makes them exciting all on their own. They also sell their eggs for more than your average Chicken (though Large Eggs, which Void Chickens don't produce, do outsell them).
| Type/Quality | Normal Quality Sell Price | Silver Quality Sell Price | Gold Quality Sell Price | Iridium Quality Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Void Egg | 65g | 81g | 97g | 130g |
| Void Mayonnaise | 275g | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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Dinosaur
- How To Unlock And Obtain: Obtain a Dinosaur Egg (via digging up Artifact Spots, fishing a Treasure Chest, killing a Pepper Rex, foraged in the Skull Cavern, or won in the Movie Theater) and incubate it in a Big or Deluxe Coop
- Produces: Every seven Days — Dinosaur Egg
- Associated Artisan Good(s): Dinosaur Mayonnaise, made by putting Dinosaur Eggs into Mayonnaise Machines
- Sell Price At Full Friendship: 1,300g
Dinosaurs are a bit tough to find — there are lots of ways to get the Dinosaur Egg, but each method has a fairly low chance of yielding it. It also only produces an Egg every seven days, so, while it's fun to have them in your Coops, it might not always be the most profitable option.
| Type/Quality | Normal Quality Sell Price | Silver Quality Sell Price | Gold Quality Sell Price | Iridium Quality Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dinosaur Egg | 350g | 437g | 525g | 700g |
| Dinosaur Mayonnaise | 800g | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Golden Chicken
- How To Unlock And Obtain: Obtain a Golden Egg (achieve 100% perfection and then buy from Marnie for 100,000g, buy from Qi for 100 Qi Gems, or obtain via Random Event with the Witch) and incubate it in a Big or Deluxe Coop
- Produces: Every Day — Golden Egg
- Associated Artisan Good(s): threeGold Star Mayonnaise, made by putting one Golden Egg into Mayonnaise Machine
- Sell Price At Full Friendship: 1,040g
Don't feel bad if you don't have any Golden Chickens on your farm, yet — very few players do. It requires you to have 100% perfection! That's no small task. They don't even sell for very much at full friendship — indicating that their value is created by the player rather than objective within the game (though their eggs, on the other hand, have a steep price tag, especially for something you're getting daily).
| Type/Quality | Normal Quality Sell Price | Silver Quality Sell Price | Gold Quality Sell Price | Iridium Quality Sell Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Egg | 500g | 625g | 750g | 1,000g |
| Mayonnaise | 190g | 237g | 285g | 380g |
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Caring For Your Animals
Happiness And Friendship
Happiness and Friendship are both stats that have an effect on the quality of items your animal will produce. The happier they are and the better friends with you they are, the better items you'll receive.
Your Friendship with an animal will be on a scale from 0 to 1000, but it appears as a scale of five hearts when interacting with the animal. One half-heart is equal to 100 friendship points.
Actions That Affect Friendship:
- Petting The Animal: +15
- Milking Or Shearing: +5
- Eating Grass Outdoors: +8
- Not Being Fed: -20
- Trapped Outside At Night: -20
- Not Petted: -5 to -10
Happiness, on the other hand, can be between 0 and 255. The Happiness of an animal is also checked by interacting with them and viewing their menu; it's detailed by the little blurb.
- Mood is between 200 and 255: "<Animal Name> looks really happy today!"
- Mood is between 30 and 200: "<Animal Name> looks fine."
- Mood is between 0 and 30: "<Animal Name> looks sad."
Actions That Affect Happiness:
- Eating Grass Outside: mood automatically set to 255
- Petting The Animal: +32 to +36
- Feeding The Animal: +4 to +16
- In Winter, The Animal's Home Has A Heater And Their Mood Is Already Above 150: +4 to +8 every ten minutes after 6 pm that the player is awake
- If The Animal Is Outside Between 6 pm and 7 pm And Their Mood Is Already Belove 150: +4 to +8 every ten minutes
- Animal Is Outside In The Rain Or In Winter: -4 to -8 every ten minutes
- Animal Is Outside After 7 pm: -4 to -8 every 10 minutes
- Animal Must Sleep Outside: mood is halved
- Not Petted: –20 to -40
- Not Fed: -100
Food
All animals need to be fed daily. If they aren't fed, that day will not count towards producing their item.
You'll usually feed animals with Hay on their Feeding Bench, so keep an eye on your Hay supplies to make sure you don't run out. However, animals can also eat grass that's growing on your farm. For them to do this, you'll need to open the door to allow them to roam outside and make sure that the grass is near to their Coop. Just because there's grass outside that they could eat doesn't mean that they will eat it — especially if it's too far from the Coop. Allowing them to eat grass rather than Hay helps to improve their happiness level.
There are a few occasions when an animal doesn't need to be fed:
- The first day they're alive (either the day that they hatch or the day that you bought them from Marnie)
- On all festival days (the only exception to this is the Night Market, which is a three-day event that only occurs at night)
Leaving Them Outside
It's possible to lock your animal out of the Coop by closing the Coop's door before it has returned home. If this happens, they will automatically be grumpy the next day. There's also a small chance they may be attacked in the night – in this case, they'll be lost to you for good.