How to Feed Chickens in Stardew Valley: Hay, Silos and Happy Hens
Buying your first chickens is exciting right up until the next morning, when you find them standing miserably in an empty coop with no eggs to collect. Feeding animals in Stardew Valley is simple once you understand the hay pipeline, but the game explains almost none of it. Here is exactly how feeding works, what you need to build first, and how to keep hens producing large eggs all year.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Short answer: Chickens eat hay from the feeding bench inside the coop, or they eat grass outdoors if you leave the coop door open. Build a Silo from Robin (100g, 100 Stone, 10 Clay, 5 Copper Bars) and cut grass with your scythe to stockpile hay, and the game will automatically place hay in the feeding bench every morning. You can also place hay by hand or buy it from Marnie for 50g each.
| Game | Platform | Genre | Why It’s Great | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stardew Valley | PC, Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox, Mobile | Farming sim | Animal husbandry, mining, fishing and combat in one endlessly generous package | 5/5 |
| Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life | Switch, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S | Farming sim | Generational story structure and the most tactile livestock care in the genre | 4/5 |
| Rune Factory 5 | Switch, PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox | Farming RPG | Tame monsters as farm animals, then take them into dungeons with you | 4/5 |
| Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Nintendo Switch | Life sim | Real-time island building with zero fail states, ideal for winding down | 4.5/5 |
| Coral Island | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S | Farming sim | Tropical setting with animal care, diving and reef restoration layered together | 4/5 |
| Fields of Mistria | PC | Farming sim | Gorgeous pixel art and a friendly progression curve that respects your time | 4.5/5 |
| Slime Rancher 2 | PC, Xbox Series X|S | First-person ranching | Feeding and breeding mechanics reimagined as a colourful exploration game | 4/5 |
| Farming Simulator 25 | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S | Simulation | The serious end of the genre, with genuine agricultural machinery and livestock chains | 4/5 |
How to Feed Chickens in Stardew Valley: Build the Silo First
The silo is the piece almost every new player skips. Commission it from Robin at the Carpenter’s Shop for 100g plus 100 Stone, 10 Clay and 5 Copper Bars, and it takes two days to build. Once it exists, every patch of grass you cut with a scythe has a chance to become hay stored inside it, up to 240 hay per silo.
With hay in the silo and a coop containing animals, the game does the work for you: hay is automatically placed in the feeding bench each morning. You will see it appear along the trough on the inside wall. This is why the standard advice is to build the silo before buying animals, not after.
Cutting Grass the Right Way
Only the scythe converts grass into stored hay, and only while a silo with free space exists. Cutting grass with a weapon destroys it and gives you nothing. Do not scythe every patch, either: leave some grass standing so it can spread, because grass propagates from remaining tufts and will regrow the following days.
To bootstrap a field, buy Grass Starter from Pierre’s for 100g each and place it near the coop. A block of nine or so starters, left alone for a week in spring, will carpet a large area. Late in spring and through summer you can harvest that field for dozens of hay in a single pass.
Feeding by Hand and Buying Hay
If your silo is empty, you can still feed manually. Marnie sells hay at Marnie’s Ranch for 50g each, and you place it directly into the feeding bench by standing in front of a trough tile and using the hay from your inventory. One hay feeds one animal for one day.
Manual feeding is a stopgap, not a strategy. At 50g per animal per day, a full deluxe coop of twelve costs 600g daily, which eats most of the egg income. Treat purchased hay as emergency stock for a bad winter and let grass do the work the rest of the year.
The Free Option: Let Them Outside
If you open the coop door in the morning, chickens wander out and eat grass directly from the ground, which costs you nothing and does not touch your hay reserves. This is the most efficient feeding method in spring, summer and fall, and it also gives animals a small mood boost from being outside on a sunny day.
Two cautions. Animals will not go outside in rain, storms, or winter, and if you forget to close the door before sleeping they can be attacked at night, so close it in the evening. Also make sure there is actually grass to eat; opening the door onto bare dirt means they go hungry.
Why Feeding Determines Egg Quality
Feeding is not just about avoiding starvation. An unfed animal’s mood drops sharply, and mood plus friendship together decide whether a chicken lays a normal egg, a large egg, or nothing at all. Consistent feeding, daily petting, and letting them outdoors on clear days is the whole formula for large eggs, which sell for considerably more and make better mayonnaise.
Friendship is built by petting each animal once per day, so a full coop is a real time commitment each morning. Players who want to reduce that burden buy an Auto-Grabber from Marnie for 25,000g, which collects produce automatically, though it does not pet the animals for you.
Winter, Heaters and Stockpiling
Grass does not grow in winter and existing grass dies at the season change, so your entire winter feeding plan is hay stored during fall. Fill the silo to its 240 cap before the last day of fall, and consider building a second silo if you keep a large herd, since 240 hay does not last twelve animals through 28 days.
Buy a Heater from Marnie for 2,000g and place it inside each coop. Heaters keep animals in good mood through winter, which protects egg quality even though they cannot go outside. One heater covers one building regardless of how many animals are inside.
Coop Upgrades and the Auto-Feed System
The basic Coop houses four animals, the Big Coop houses eight and allows ducks plus incubation of void and dinosaur eggs, and the Deluxe Coop houses twelve and adds an automatic feeding system that fills the troughs without you doing anything, provided the silo has hay. If you dislike morning chores, the Deluxe Coop is the upgrade that removes most of them.
Specialty birds work the same way as ordinary hens. A Void Chicken hatched from a Void Egg, which Krobus sells for 5,000g, and a Golden Chicken from a Golden Egg both eat hay identically, so no separate feeding logic applies.
Long farming sessions are where comfort beats specs. A gaming chair buying guide and a gaming monitor buying guide cover the two upgrades that most improve multi-hour play, while a handheld gaming PC buying guide and a gaming laptop buying guide are worth reading if you want the game portable. For co-op farms, a gaming headset buying guide keeps voice chat clear across four players, and a gaming router buying guide helps if your multiplayer host connection stutters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a silo to feed chickens in Stardew Valley?
Not strictly, but without one you must either buy hay from Marnie at 50g each or leave the coop door open so the birds eat grass outdoors. A silo is what allows cut grass to be stored as hay and automatically dispensed into the feeding bench each morning, so it is the only sustainable option long term.
How much hay does one chicken eat per day?
Each animal consumes exactly one hay per day when fed indoors. A four-animal coop therefore needs 28 hay to survive a full 28-day winter, while a twelve-animal deluxe coop needs 336, which is more than a single silo’s 240 capacity can hold.
Why are my chickens not laying eggs?
The usual cause is missed feeding, which drops mood to the point where production stops entirely. Other causes include very low friendship from never petting them, being left outside overnight, or the animal simply being newly purchased, since chickens need a day to settle in before their first egg appears.
Should I leave the coop door open in Stardew Valley?
Open it in the morning during spring, summer and fall when there is grass outside, because outdoor grazing costs no hay and improves mood. Close it before you sleep, and keep it closed during rain and all of winter, since animals will not go out in bad weather and can be attacked at night.
