Presented by EA Game Changers
In The Sims 4 Cottage Living, your Sims can own a wide variety of animals, including llamas, cows, and chickens! These animals will provide your Sims with high quality products they can use in cooking, cross-stitching, and more as long as you keep them healthy and happy.
Read on to learn how to take the best care of your new animal friends!
Chicken Coops
To obtain chicks, hens, and roosters, you must first purchase a Chicken Coop from Build/Buy, or purchase a lot with a Chicken Coop already on it. Each coop houses up to 8 chickens but there is no limit to the number of coops you can have on your property. If you want more than 8 chickens, you will need to have more coops to house more birds.
Once placed, you can click on the coop to purchase chicks, hens, and roosters to inhabit it. You can choose between three types of adult chickens (white, brown, and black) and either male or female chicks. More types of chickens can be obtained by feeding your chickens specific animal treats.
Chicken coops have to be cleaned regularly. You can see your coop’s status by hovering over it with your cursor. When the chicken coop is dirty, make sure you clean it so your chickens will stay happy and healthy. Sims must also click on the chicken coop to scatter chicken feed nearby for the chickens to peck at. Make sure to remember to do this every day to keep your chickens well fed. Hovering over the coop will also tell you how many chicks, hens, and roosters are living in the coop and how many eggs are ready to be collected.
Chicken coops can also be upgraded to require less maintenance. Sims can install an auto-feeder in their coops to ensure their chickens always have enough to eat even if you forget to scatter chicken feed nearby. They can also install an upgrade that makes the chickens more relaxed, leading to a longer lifespan, as well as install a fox alarm to keep foxes from stealing eggs. Chicken Coop upgrades require a new type of upgrade part, called Livestock Upgrade Parts. Sims can obtain Livestock Upgrade Parts by running errands for Sims in Henford-on-Bagley.
ComfortCare Life Extender
- Description: This upgrade extends the lifespan of the chickens living in the coop.
- Requires: 2 Livestock Upgrade Parts
Livestock Auto-Feeder
- Description: This upgrade installs an automatic feeder in the coop! Your Sims never need to scatter feed again!
- Requires: 6 Livestock Upgrade Parts
Fox-Be-Gone Alarm
- Description: This upgrade adds an alarm to the coop that goes off whenever a fox tries to get into the coop. Never worry about the safety of your chickens or eggs again!
- Requires: 3 Livestock Upgrade Parts
Taking Care of Your Chickens
There are three types of adult chickens you can purchase for a chicken coop; a white chicken, a brown chicken, and a black chicken. All three types of chickens are available as both hens and roosters. Baby chicks can also be purchased as either hen or rooster chicks. All three types of adult hens lay Normal Eggs but can produce other kinds of eggs if given specific animal treats. For more information about animal treats, see our guide, The Sims 4 Cottage Living: All About Animal Treats.
Roosters and baby chicks do not lay eggs but you will need at least one rooster in your coop for your hens to lay hatchable eggs. Not every egg your hens lay will be hatchable. Hover over the egg with your cursor to see if any of the eggs your Sim collected can hatch into chicks. Eggs can be used in cooking recipes and given as gifts to wild animals. They can also be useful in running village errands and be entered into the Finchwick Fair.
Even though they all live in the same coop, each chicken can be named individually and has their own individual needs and relationship with your Sim. Make sure you’re checking on all your chickens every day so no one gets left out.
Chickens need to have a clean coop and be kept full and happy in order to give the highest quality eggs. You can view your chicken’s stats by hovering over them with your cursor.
- Age: This tells you how old your chicken is. If you have at least one hen and one rooster in your coop, you can breed your chickens by hatching any fertilized eggs your hens lay. This stat will tell you if your chicken is a baby or adult and how close they are to passing from old age.
- Happiness: This is a cumulative stat that takes into account both the coop’s condition and the chicken’s condition. Keep the coop clean, scatter feed, and socialise with your chickens daily to keep them happy.
- Hygiene: When the coop is dirty, your chickens will become dirty, too. Dirty chickens are unhappy chickens, so make sure you stay on top of keeping the coop clean for them.
- Hunger: This shouldn’t be a problem if you stay on top of scattering feed around the coop daily but if you have hungry chickens, you can also feed them individually to build some relationship with them.
- Attention: Socialise with your chickens to keep their attention need satisfied. If you talk to a chicken, any chickens nearby will also gain social, so this can be a good way to save time. Call all your chickens over to you and chat with them all at the same time.
- 6am Harvest: This tells you what kind of egg you can expect to receive from your hen the next time you collect eggs from the coop. Hens will typically produce Normal Eggs but feeding them different treats can cause them to produce different types of eggs. Roosters and baby chicks do not have this stat.
Depending on your relationship with your chickens and what mood they are in, they might not be so receptive to you. Chickens can sometimes attack your Sim. Do enough mean socials with your chicken and push your luck one too many times and there is even a chance that your Sim could die from a chicken attack so be nice to your chickens! Happy chickens with a high relationship with your Sim are less likely to attack.
Chickens do have a lifespan and will eventually grow old and die. There are treats and coop upgrades that can extend your chickens’ lifespan but if the idea of ever having to say goodbye to them is too sad for you, you can disable animal aging in the Game Options.
Chickens can be called in and out of their coops but this isn’t typically necessary. Unless something prevents them from doing so, chickens will go into their coop for the night at around 6pm all on their own and come back out in the morning at around 6am.
Trading Your Chickens
If your farm is struggling to make ends meet or if you’re just looking to downsize the number of animals you have, you can trade in your chickens for various rewards. If you click on a chicken and select the Actions option, you’ll see a Trade For option in the pie menu. You can also do this from the coop. You’ll be able to select the chicken you want to trade from a menu.
You can trade your chickens for simoleons, animal treats, ingredients and produce and even… meat. Yes, you can send your beloved chickens off to be slaughtered in exchange for their delicious meat. It’s not something I would ever have the heart to do, but hey, if your Sim’s really gotta eat… I’m just saying it’s an option.
Make sure you really want to get rid of that chicken because once you trade it, it’s gone forever. If you want another chicken, you’ll have to click on an empty shed again to purchase a new one.
Golden Chickens and Evil Chickens
In addition to the standard three styles of chicken you can purchase directly from the coop, you can turn any of your adult hens or roosters into a Golden Hen/Rooster or an Evil Hen/Rooster by feeding them animal treats. Golden Treats create Golden Chickens and Obsidian Treats create Evil Chickens.
Golden Chickens are more likely to lay Golden Eggs (if they are a hen and not a rooster). You can also ask them for Golden Chicken Help. While Golden Chicken Help is active, your Golden Chicken will raise the quality of any products near it, so this can be a good way to increase the quality of all the eggs laid in your coop from all your hens.
Evil Chickens are more likely to lay Obsidian Eggs (if they are a hen and not a rooster). You can also ask them for Evil Chicken Help. While Evil Chicken Help is active, your Evil Chicken will protect your home from foxes, household enemies, vampires, and even the Grim Reaper!
