RELATED: Stardew Valley: Tips To Improve Your Farm Layout

Due to being cheaper than a barn and a way to house animals, a chicken coop is a good first farm building to save up for. Once built, there are plenty of methods for making total bank off of your chickens. With that money, players can upgrade the coop and make even more money in a nice circle of profit.

Updated On September 23, 2021, By Allison Stalberg: There is more to Stardew Valley’s chicken coop that meets the eye. The first job is to build the coop, then upgrade it, and then profit from it via gifts and sales. However, there is also the matter of how to get the animals for the coop. Chickens are one thing, but how does one get void chickens and dinosaurs? Getting to a fully upgraded coop takes a lot of resources, so it is also best to know what those are and begin gathering them as early as possible.

How To Get A Coop

A coop and its upgrades are all purchasable at Robin’s Carpenter’s Shop. The shop is north of Pelican Town and is usually open from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Buying a chicken coop will cost four thousand gold and require 300 wood and 100 stone. Early on in the game, this wood can be gathered by hitting wood and branches with an ax. Stone can be gathered by mining with a pickaxe.

RELATED: Stardew Valley: Things You May Not Know About The Wizard

The first chicken coop the player gets only can house four chickens. Don’t worry though, there are upgraded chicken coops that they can get later.

Using The Regular Coop

The next thing to do is to purchase four chickens. Chickens can be bought at Marnie’s Ranch for 800 gold each. They will require care, so be sure to stock up on hay and/or give them an outdoor area where they can eat grass (though grass will not be available in winter). Hay can either be bought from Marnie or harvested using a scythe on grass (players will need to build a silo to harvest hay).

RELATED: Stardew Valley: Everything You Need To Know About Secret Notes

Each chicken will make one brown or white egg every morning. They will sell for 50 gold each. Be sure to pet the chickens to raise their friendship, as that will eventually make them produce large eggs, which sell for nearly double at 95 gold each.

If able, get a Mayonnaise Machine. With this, players, can turn eggs into mayonnaise and sell it for 190 gold — nearly four times as much coin as a regular old egg can get. As for cooking, it is best to just sell the eggs or sell them as mayonnaise rather than turn them into a meal to sell. Making a meal will actually make less money than selling the raw ingredients for the meal. For example, an omelette sells for 125 gold and requires a milk and egg, but milk alone sells for 125 gold already.

Upgrading The Coop

Requirements For A Big Coop:

10,000 gold 400 wood 150 stone

Requirements For A Deluxe Coop:

20,000 gold 500 wood 200 stone

Getting Animals Other Than Regular Chickens

With the coop upgraded, there is the freedom to get new animals outside of just chickens. Some are bought while others come from less obvious methods.

Void Chicken

A Void Chicken is a black chicken that produces Void Eggs. They can only be obtained by incubating a Void Egg. There are three ways to get a Void Egg without a Void Chicken:

Purchase from Krobus for 5,000 gold. Purchase from Traveling Cart on Friday or Sunday for up to 1,200 gold. A random event can happen at night, causing a witch to fly over the coop and leave a Void Egg.

Ducks

Ducks are easy to obtain once the coop is upgraded. Once upgraded, they become available for purchase at Marnie’s ranch for 4,000 gold.

Rabbits

Rabbits specifically need to the Deluxe Coop upgrade. Once that upgrade is done, they become available for purchase at Marnie’s Ranch for 8,000 gold.

Dinosaurs

Like Void Chickens, a Dinosaur will need to be obtained via hatching a Dinosaur Egg. It is both an artifact and animal product. The egg can be obtained by digging up artifact spots in the mountains, fishing treasure chests, foraging on prehistoric floors of Skull Caverns, winning the Crane Came in the Movie Theater, or as a drop from a Pepper Rex. Once dropped, just incubate, and then a dinosaur will hatch.

How To Profit With Gold

To make the greatest profit with a coop, players need to take the Tiller farming skill at level five. Once at level 10, choose the Artisan skill. This skill will make all artisan goods (such as the mayo you make from eggs) sell for 40 percent more.

With the assumption that you max out all the affection of the coop animals and have the Artisan perk, here are the profits each type of animal can net for farmers:

Based on this information, chickens are the best animals for the coop to make a profit. While other products sell for more, they do not produce every single day like a chicken does. With all this in mind, the most profitable coop is one that is full of chickens with an artisan farmer.

How To Profit With Gifts

Some characters love products that come from coop animals. Here are some to keep in mind.

Characters that Like (plus 45 affection) coop products:

Characters that Love (plus 80 affection) coop products:

MORE: Stardew Valley: Things You May Not Know About Krobus