Cock-a-doodle-do! If you are interested in purchasing and keeping cute little chickens in your residential lot but don’t know a thing or two about raising them, then you are in the right place! This article will walk you through everything you need to know about caring for and cleaning chickens in The Sims 4.
350 CC Items! Time to celebrate! 🎉
Before we begin: Thank you! We’re celebrating 3 years and 350+ CC items. As a gift, supporters can get all our free CC at once here: ALL IN ONE DOWNLOAD
Chickens in The Sims 4? Yep, we now have them!
The launch of The Sims 4: Cottage Living really rocked our worlds as it unpacked not just a new neighborhood and new items in our game, but a whole new bunch of critters as well! The eleventh expansion pack gifted us with an assortment of wild and gentle creatures to raise and nurture—cows, llamas, rabbits, foxes, birds, and chickens. Each of these animals requires particular needs, but for this article, we focused on giving you all the essential information you need to care for and clean chickens! Read on to know more about these friendly (and also feisty!) fowls.
Purchasing Chickens
You can buy various chickens in The Sims 4. Simply purchase a chicken coop from Build Mode, place the coop on your lot, then click “Purchase chickens”. White, brown, or black chickens are available for purchase, as well as yellow-colored chicks. All chickens and chicks come in two varieties—hens or roosters. You would have to buy a combination of a hen and a rooster to be able to collect eggs.
Caring for Chickens
Chickens in the Sims 4 need basic care, which means that they have to be regularly fed, cleaned, protected, and nurtured in order for them to live happily. When you click on a chicken, you will see specific information about it, as well as its needs. You have to observe their Happiness, Hygiene, Hunger, and Attention from time to time to make sure they are doing okay. We will cover the other things later, but for now, we will focus on how you can give them proper sustenance.
To be able to keep them full, your Sim has to scatter chicken feed on the ground. The chickens will naturally gather around these little chow piles and munch on them, satisfying their hunger. For sleeping, they stay inside the coop at night to catch their Zzzzs. Sometimes though, you will catch them falling asleep while wandering around your lot.
Socializing with Chickens
Socializing is an important part of nourishing the Attention of your chickens and building your relationship with them. Surprisingly, you have a wealth of options in socializing with these feathered critters. You can hug them, tell them a joke, play with them, pet them, or even scare them. Sometimes, you can even ask them crazy questions such as “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?”, or give them solid advice about their lives.
The important thing is that you interact with them on a frequent basis. Take note though that not all chickens are not easy to please! Even if you shower them with affection, some chickens will react negatively to you. So, tread carefully with those ~fowl~ jokes!
Giving Animal Treats to Chickens
Animal Treats are special items that can be fed to Cottage Living animals, including chickens. These treats will cause a change in their physical appearance, let them have status effects, or cause a change in their offspring or natural produce. Your Sim can prepare a variety of animal treats by simply clicking the refrigerator. Note that distinct combinations of particular ingredients will result in specific animal treats. We rounded up some of the treats that your Sim can create to feed their chickens:
- Chocolaty Treat – This treat lets hens lay chocolate eggs.
- Healthy Treat – This treat helps increase a chicken’s lifespan.
- Golden Treat – This treat is for creating golden chickens.
- Flirty Treat – This treat lets hens lay pink eggs.
- Pumpkin Treat – This treat lets hens lay orange eggs.
- Veggie Treat – This treat lets hens lay green eggs.
- Fruity treat – This treat lets hens lay blue eggs.
- Spicy Treat – This treat lets hens lay obsidian eggs.
- Friendly Treat – This treat helps increase your relationship with chickens.
- Rainbow Treat – This treat lets hens lay rainbow eggs.
- Midnight Treat – This treat is for creating evil chickens, which will lay obsidian eggs.
Keeping the Chickens Clean
Like what we mentioned earlier, Hygiene is a basic necessity in tending TS4 chickens. You have to make sure that they are always clean to be able to keep them happy and in tip-top condition. But how exactly do you clean these hens and roosters? There are three ways to do it.
- Changing the Weather – The first way is to go to Build Mode and search for Dr. June’s Weather Control Device. Buy this and place it on the lot, then let your Sim control the current weather by selecting rain from the list of options. Once the raindrops are already pouring, call your chickens out to let them have some clean, watery fun.
- Buying a Sprinkler – This is a cheaper option than the first one, and kind of our favorite, too, as it gives a true-to-life chicken-raising experience for our Sims in their backyards. Simply purchase a few Sprinkle-O-Matic 2001 from Build Mode, then situate these near your chicken coops. Turn the sprinklers on. As your chickens walk by these devices, they will get an instant shower.
- Cleaning the Coop – This is the easiest way to upkeep the Hygiene of your little fellows. Simply click on the coop and select “Clean the coop”. Your chickens will be fluffing their feathers all spic and span in no time!
Protecting the Chickens
It is also necessary to protect your chickens from certain things that stress and scare them, which are mainly foxes. These wild animals wander regularly in your lot, aiming to steal your chicken’s precious eggs. Some chickens will fight the foxes to be able to protect their eggs, but this interaction greatly takes a toll on their happiness. For a solution, you can have a dog that could help chase these troublesome creatures away. By yourself, you can also watch out for these foxes, shoo them away, or tell them to stop bothering your fowls. Alternatively, you can also install a fox alarm system which we will discuss in the next section.
Upgrading the Coop of Chickens
Upgrading the coop of your TS4 chickens is an optional activity, but is definitely recommended to improve the lives of your feathered friends. A new upgrade part, called the Livestock Upgrade part, is required to be able to construct advancements on a chicken coop. You can obtain these upgrade parts by accepting a few errands from Sims in the Henford-on-Bagley neighborhood. There are three upgrades available for the chicken coop:
- Livestock Auto-Feeder – By having this upgrade, you no longer have to scatter feeds for your chickens. This update will automatically supply feeds for your chickens every few hours, which will ensure that their hunger is always satiated. Have this upgrade by obtaining 6 Livestock Upgrade parts.
- ComfortCare Life Extender – Your chickens will not be with you forever as they will also grow old and weak as time passes. With this update, you can help prolong their lives so you can spend more quality time with them. Have this upgrade by obtaining 2 Livestock Upgrade parts.
- Fox-Be-Gone Alarm -As we mentioned earlier, you have to make an effort to protect your chickens from the wild foxes which upset them. One of the easiest ways to do this is by installing an alarm upgrade on your coop. Whenever a fox intrudes on their coop, the alarm will go out and intimidate these animals, causing them to run away. Have this upgrade by obtaining 4 Livestock Upgrade parts.
Collecting Eggs from Chickens
Hens and roosters living in a coop will keep on producing eggs for you to collect each day. Of course, the number of eggs that you acquire will depend on how many chickens you own. The eggs will also come in distinct varieties and colors. After collecting the eggs, they will go straight into your inventory, where you can easily sell them or use them as an ingredient for your cooking recipes.
Take note that there are times your chickens will be able to produce hatchable eggs as well. These hatchable eggs must be placed right back in the coop where the mother hen can lay on them and speed up their hatching process. After two days, these hatchable eggs will then turn into cute little chicks.
Dressing Chickens Up
Yep, you read that right, you can dress up not just cats, dogs, and other animals in the Sims 4, but also hens and roosters! Amusingly, your chickens can be dressed in a variety of hats, scarves, blouses, vests, and sweaters. Simply obtain the specific crafting materials for a clothing item, visit the Creature Keeper, and pay for the cost of the crafting process. Your chickens will surely enjoy roaming your farm while being clad in a fabulous wardrobe.
Trading Chickens
Later on, when you no longer want a chicken, you can trade it for something else. Simply click on a chicken, select “Action”, then click “Trade for” from the options available. You may trade the chicken for simoleons, for fresh ingredients, for animal treats, and for, erm… their chicken meat. Yep, that means that you can eat your chickens when you no longer want them roaming around your lot, or if you’re craving some chicken meat. After trading them, you will then receive the traded item in your mailbox.
Chickens for Competitions
You can also have your hens and roosters join the lively chicken competition at the Finchwick Fair, which occurs on certain Saturdays at Henford-on-Bagley from 3:30 pm onwards. Dress your chicken in their best clothes and allow them to compete with other clucking and crowing contestants. During the said fair, you can also bring your best eggs to enter them into the said competition. To ensure you do not go there empty-handed, simply click on your chicken or egg, and put them in your inventory. The Mayor will then come around to judge each contestant in the Fair.
The Rise of Golden and Evil Chickens
There are two more interesting types of chickens in the game. The first one, the Golden Chicken, is created by giving a Golden Treat to a chicken or by hatching a Golden Egg. When you have a Golden Chicken, it can help increase the value of the fresh produce in your lot. Vegetables, fruits, plants, food, and drinks will have a higher quality when a Golden Chicken roams around.
On the other hand, an Evil Chicken is created by giving a Midnight Treat to a chicken or alternatively, by hatching an Obsidian Egg. An Evil Chicken is a chicken covered entirely in black feathers and has a red pair of eyes. It will go around your lot causing a bit of chaos, such as fires and fights. It will be quite hard to form a solid bond with an Evil Chicken as they are aloof and unfriendly. However, your Sims can still try! If they succeed, they will be rewarded as Black Chickens are loyal and defensive to the Sims with whom they form a good friendship.
Death from Chickens
Be careful! A new death is available in The Sims 4: Cottage Living which involves your chickens. Yep. A close brush with death is possible if you fight with chickens. If you form a negative relationship with them, or if you frequently provoke them by scaring them, your chickens can attack you which can cause your death. Be especially careful with the war freak spirit of the atrocious Evil Chickens, and don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Final Thoughts
Nurturing chickens in The Sims 4 is not an easy job! They require great care, quality time, and plenty of affection from their owners so that they could grow well and produce excellent eggs. Most of the time though, spending time with chickens becomes rewarding as you also get to form a special friendship with them. With this article, we hope that you learned a thing or two on how to properly care for your feathered friends in The Sims 4. Have fun playing, simmers!