Chickens and Silkie Chickens
Chickens are pretty easy farm animals to care for. Before you can raise chickens, you will need to build a Coop. The blueprint for the chicken barn is for sale at Rebecca's shop for 1600 G after Spring 25 of your first year. Your farm starts with a livestock Barn, but not a chicken Coop.
The Coop requires 5 Small Stone Lumber, 20 Small Lumber, and 5 Mint. The Mint can be found when foraging in the outside-the-village areas during Spring, Summer, or Fall. If you want to grow it yourself, you'll need to find wild Mint (or trade for it) and place it into the Seed Maker machine. Hana does not sell Mint seeds at her shop.
A single Coop can house up to 10 birds. You can place up to three Coops on your farm; one in the main area, one in the eastern farm area, and one in the western farm area. The maximum number of chickens you can have is 30.
A regular white Chicken can be bought from Neil's animal stall for 5000 G starting on Spring 9 of your first year. Since you can't build the Coop until after Spring 25, you are restricted from buying one until then. Neil does not sell baby chickens. He will start to sell the advanced black Silkie Chicken in Winter of year 2 or after you have hatched 10 eggs. Each Silkie Chicken costs 6500 G.
Hatching Eggs
Your Coop will have a nesting box on the eastern wall inside of the building. Simply place an egg onto the nesting box to hatch a baby chicken. An Egg will hatch a white Chicken and a Silkie Egg will hatch a Silkie Chicken. If you place a Gold Egg or Gold Silkie Egg into the nesting box you'll just receive a regular bird; you can't hatch golden chickens using golden eggs.
If you receive a Silkie Egg from the wifi trading system, you can hatch it to raise a Silkie Chicken on your farm before Neil sells them.
An egg will hatch after 7 days (not counting the day you placed it into the nesting box) whether it is a normal Egg or a Silkie Egg. The hatched chick will have as much friendship as two times the Star Rank of the egg you placed into the nesting box, but with a maximum FP of 500 (5 hearts). For example, if you place a Silkie Egg with a Star Rank of 2 (about 90 Star Points) into a nesting box, the resulting chick will have 180 Friendship Points (almost 2 hearts). But placing an egg with 5 stars (300 SP) will only result in a chicken with 5 hearts because of the 500 FP limit.
A chick will take another 8 days to mature into an adult chicken.
Feeding
Chickens do NOT forage for food in this version of Harvest Moon. Each day the chickens will need to be fed Chicken Feed, which is sold at Neil's shop for 140 G each. A bag of feed placed into a floor feed bin inside the Coop will care for 5 chickens. You cannot make your own Chicken Feed.
If you want to feed the chickens outside, you will need to build your own Chicken Feeding Area. The blueprint is 800 G at Rebecca's shop after Spring 25 of your first year. The outdoor feeding box requires 5 Small Material Stone, 2 Small Lumber, and 3 Soil. Placing this in the field area on your farm will allow you to place outdoor Chicken Feed for the birds, but honestly there's no point to it. You can place feed into the indoor bins and the chickens will just eat from there, either in the morning before they're herded outside by any pets that you own, or in the evening when they return to the Coop. Chickens will only lay eggs when they are inside the Coop, and leaving them outdoors overnight is -10 Friendship Points, so you can't leave them outside overnight like in most Harvest Moon games.
Egg Production
Both Chickens and Silkie Chickens will lay an egg every day (if indoors when the day begins). To harvest the eggs you simply have to pick them up off of the ground. If you don't pick them up that day, the chickens will lay again the next day, resulting in a stack of eggs; you'll have to press the A Button twice to pick up the stack. If you don't feel like picking up the eggs every day, you can do it every other day without penalty. A third egg won't stack if you continue to avoid harvesting the eggs; you'll only get a stack of two no matter what.
If you have given special treats to your birds, you can increase their productivity level. A chicken that can lay more than one egg will keep to the same egg-stacking system, but instead of one egg that you pick up, you're actually picking up a stack of however many it can lay. For example, if you have a Chicken that can lay 5 Eggs each day, you'll only see 1 Egg on the ground in the morning. When you pick it up, it will add 5 inside of your rucksack. If you leave the stack there and harvest the next day, then you'll pick up two stacks of 5 Eggs.
Gold eggs will come from chickens that have won the Fall 21 Chicken Festival.
Life Span
Your birds will naturally pass away when they become too old. The more friendship your birds have, the longer they'll live. If a chicken passes away, you'll be greeted by Neil in the morning when you wake up. The maximum life span for a bird is 8 years. A normal Chicken can start to pass away at age 4, and Silkies at 5 years old. If you save your game the night before and your animal dies, reload your save game and go to bed to see if it survives the next morning.
Chicken Products
Name | Maker Shed Recipe | Profit (1 Star to 5 Star) |
---|---|---|
Egg | --- | 144 G | 192 G | 240 G | 288 G | 336 G |
Silkie Egg | --- | 240 G | 320 G | 400 G | 480 G | 560 G |
Gold Egg | --- | 432 G | 576 G | 720 G | 864 G | 1008 G |
Gold Silkie Egg | --- | 720 G | 960 G | 1200 G | 1440 G | 1680 G |
Mayonnaise | Egg + Oil | 168 G | 224 G | 280 G | 336 G | 392 G |
Great Mayonnaise | Gold Egg + Oil | 480 G | 640 G | 800 G | 960 G | 1120 G |
Silkie Mayonnaise | Silkie Egg + Oil | 264 G | 352 G | 440 G | 528 G | 616 G |
Great Silkie Mayo | Gold Silkie Egg + Oil | 792 G | 1056 G | 1320 G | 1584 G | 1848 G |
Herb Mayonnaise | Egg + Oil + herb | 204 G | 272 G | 340 G | 408 G | 476 G |
Great Herb Mayo | Gold Egg + Oil + herb | 516 G | 688 G | 860 G | 1032 G | 1204 G |
Great Herb Mayo | Gold Egg + Oil + herb | 516 G | 688 G | 860 G | 1032 G | 1204 G |
Silkie Herb Mayo | Silkie Egg + Oil + herb | 300 G | 400 G | 500 G | 600 G | 700 G |
Great S. Herb Mayo | Gold Silkie Egg + Oil + herb | 828 G | 1104 G | 1380 G | 1656 G | 1932 G |