A Guide to Keeping Chickens
Chickens are a small livestock business you can run right on your own lot.
Buy the nesting boxes, hatch a flock, keep your birds fed, and collect eggs to sell or use for baking. The chickens themselves aren’t worth much when sold — the eggs are where the money is.
What’s in the Catalog
Only three chicken-related items are available directly from the catalog. The birds themselves are not catalog items — you purchase chickens and chicks through the Nesting Boxes after placing them on your lot.
| Item | Catalog Category | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Nesting Boxes for Chooks | Pets | §20,000 |
| Bulk Pet Food | Misc | §1,000 |
| Chicken Coop | Misc | §3,000 |
Important: The Chicken Coop is decorative only. It has no behavior attached to it. Chickens do not live in it, sleep in it, or lay eggs inside it.
Buy it because it looks good next to the real thing — not instead of the real thing.
Getting Started
1. Place the Nesting Boxes
Purchase Nesting Boxes for Chooks for §20,000 from the Pets category.
Once placed, click the nesting boxes to access:
- Buy Chicken — §5,000
- Buy Chicks — §2,500
- Learn to Use
2. Buy a Bird
One chicken is enough to get started.
You need two chickens before anything can breed, but a single hen can still lay eggs.
3. Put Down Food and Keep It There
Purchase Bulk Pet Food for §1,000 from the Misc category.
Bulk Pet Food is a permanent object. Click it and choose:
Feed Chicken — §500
This places a chook food pile on the ground.
Always keep at least one food pile on your lot. Food piles are not only important for keeping your birds alive — they are also required for egg production.
What the Birds Do
Every chicken tracks three hidden stats:
- Hunger
- Energy
- Mood
All three begin at 75.
Mood is simply the average of Hunger and Energy, so it is not something you raise directly.
Hunger
Starting value: 75
Hunger drains constantly while the chicken is active.
This is the only stat that can actually kill a chicken.
Energy
Starting value: 75
Energy refills automatically while the chicken rests.
Petting a chicken costs the bird a small amount of energy.
Mood
Starting value: 75
Mood is calculated from the chicken’s Hunger and Energy.
It also determines whether the bird is healthy enough to lay eggs or breed.
Normal Chicken Behavior
When left alone, chickens will:
- Wander around the lot
- Peck at food piles
- Rest and doze
- Occasionally mingle with other chickens
Clicking a live chicken gives you several interactions.
Feed Chicken — §15
Adds 22 Hunger, up to a maximum of 100.
This is the cheapest and most reliable way to quickly top up an individual bird.
Pet Chicken — Free
Petting a chicken gives your Sim:
- +50 Fun
- +50 Social
That’s half a bar of each for free.
The chicken loses 5 Energy when petted.
Sell Chicken — §500
Adult chickens sell for §500.
Chicks sell for §250.
This is dramatically less than what you paid for them, so selling birds should only be used when you need to reduce the size of your flock.
Dispose of Dead Chicken
This option only appears after a chicken has died.
Dispose of dead birds as soon as possible, because leaving them on the lot has consequences.
Why Feed and Pet Sometimes Disappear
This is normal behavior.
Feed Chicken and Pet Chicken only appear while the bird is awake and walking around.
If the chicken is:
- Resting
- Sleeping
- Mingling with another chicken
those interactions may temporarily disappear from the pie menu.
Wait a few seconds for the bird to resume normal activity and click it again.
Eggs: Where the Money Is
Eggs are the main source of profit from chickens.
An egg tray can only appear when every one of the following conditions is true at the same time:
- A Nesting Boxes object is on the lot
- A chook food pile is physically sitting on the lot
- The chicken’s Hunger is 75 or higher
- The chicken’s Mood is 50 or higher
- The chicken’s Energy is 50 or higher
If all of those requirements are met, the chicken has roughly a 1-in-200 chance of producing an egg tray each time it cycles through its behavior.
Eggs are intentionally slow.
You should expect them to trickle in over the course of a session, not appear on demand.
A healthy, well-fed flock left running will steadily produce eggs over time.
Selling Eggs
Egg trays can either be:
- Sold immediately
- Added to your inventory for baking
The selling price depends entirely on the Creativity Skill of the Sim who sells the egg tray.
| Creativity Skill | Egg Tray Value |
|---|---|
| 0–5 | §850 |
| 6–10 | §1,450 |
| 11–15 | §2,150 |
| 16–19 | §2,875 |
| 20 | §3,500 |
The egg itself does not change.
Only the Creativity Skill of the Sim selling it matters.
At maximum Creativity, the same egg tray is worth more than four times what a low-Creativity Sim receives.
Tip: Always send your highest-Creativity Sim to sell your egg trays.
Breeding
Chickens can occasionally produce chicks without you buying them.
Breeding can happen when a contented chicken:
- Has Mood of 55 or higher
- Is not too full
- Wanders into another chicken
When those conditions are met, there is a small chance that the pair will produce a chick.
Breeding is roughly as rare as egg laying, so it should be treated as a bonus, not something you can reliably force.
Chicks Growing Up
Chicks eventually grow into adult chickens.
Growth uses the same general conditions required for egg production:
- Nesting Boxes are present
- A chook food pile is present
- Hunger is 75 or higher
- Mood is 50 or higher
- Energy is 50 or higher
Keep the chick fed and healthy and it will eventually grow on its own.
How Hard Is It to Keep Chickens Alive?
Keeping chickens alive is easy as long as food stays available.
Recovering from neglect can be much harder.
Starvation Is the Only Cause of Death
Chickens do not die from:
- Illness
- Accidents
- Random death rolls
A chicken dies the moment its Hunger reaches 0.
Hunger Drains Automatically
Hunger drops a few points at a time while the chicken is active.
From full Hunger, a completely neglected bird has roughly 20 behavior cycles before reaching zero.
Chickens Can Feed Themselves
If a food pile is available, chickens will automatically eat from it once their Hunger falls below 50.
Each serving restores 40 Hunger.
Food piles contain several servings before being completely used up.
Resting Chickens Cannot Starve
Hunger stops draining entirely while a chicken is resting.
A sleeping or resting chicken is therefore not in danger of starving during that time.
Keeping Them Alive Is Cheap
A food pile on the lot, combined with the occasional §15 Feed Chicken interaction, makes a properly managed flock extremely easy to maintain.
Dead Chickens
Dead chickens do not disappear automatically.
When a chicken starves, it becomes a dead-bird object that remains where it fell until somebody disposes of it.
A dead chicken:
- Reduces your Room score by 50
- Fouls the surrounding area
- Remains on the lot indefinitely
Click the dead bird and choose:
Dispose of Dead Chicken
On an unattended lot, dead chickens can quietly destroy your Room rating.
The problem is not the living chickens — it’s leaving their bodies behind.
Five Things That Trip People Up
1. No Food Pile Means No Eggs
This is the most common reason players think their chickens are broken.
A chicken can have completely full Hunger and still never produce an egg if there is no chook food pile physically sitting on the lot.
A full Hunger bar is not the same thing as food being present.
For eggs, you need both.
2. The Chicken Coop Is Decoration
The Nesting Boxes are the functional chicken object.
The Chicken Coop does not:
- House chickens
- Make chickens sleep
- Produce eggs
- Help breeding
- Feed chickens
It is scenery.
3. Never Buy Birds Just to Resell Them
The resale values are intentionally low.
- Buy Chicken: §5,000
- Sell Chicken: §500
- Buy Chick: §2,500
- Sell Chick: §250
Selling birds is useful for clearing space.
It is not a money-making strategy.
4. Sell Eggs With Your Best Creativity Sim
The exact same egg tray can sell for anywhere from:
§850 to §3,500
The only thing determining the price is the Creativity Skill of the Sim who sells it.
Use your best Sim.
5. Clear Dead Birds Immediately
Dead birds stay on the lot indefinitely.
Every dead chicken reduces your Room score by 50 and continues fouling the surrounding area until somebody disposes of it.
Do not leave them sitting around.
The Break-Even Math
A basic flock costs approximately §26,000 to establish:
- Nesting Boxes — §20,000
- One Chicken — §5,000
- Bulk Pet Food — §1,000
Total: §26,000
With a max-Creativity Sim selling egg trays for §3,500 each, you need roughly:
8 egg trays
to earn back your initial investment.
After that, additional egg trays are mostly profit, with only a small ongoing feed cost.
The Best Way to Run a Chicken Lot
Chickens are not designed to be a fast-money object.
They’re a slow, low-attention source of income.
For the easiest setup:
- Place your Nesting Boxes somewhere out of the way.
- Buy your first chicken.
- Keep a food pile on the ground at all times.
- Occasionally top up birds with the §15 Feed Chicken interaction.
- Let the flock wander and reproduce naturally.
- Collect egg trays whenever you notice them.
- Sell eggs using your highest-Creativity Sim.
- Dispose of dead chickens immediately.
Once everything is running, the flock mostly takes care of itself.
Quick Reference
Nesting Boxes: §20,000
Chicken: §5,000
Chick: §2,500
Bulk Pet Food: §1,000
Place Food Pile: §500
Feed Individual Chicken: §15
Chicken Resale: §500
Chick Resale: §250
Egg Requirement: Hunger 75+, Mood 50+, Energy 50+, Nesting Boxes present, food pile present
Best Egg Value: §3,500 at Creativity 20
Only Cause of Chicken Death: Starvation
Dead Chicken Room Penalty: -50
Prices, thresholds, and skill tiers are taken directly from the live object behavior in The New Sims Online. Behavior cycle timings are described in relative terms because exact timing can vary depending on lot speed.