Coop or Barn First? Every Animal You Can Buy, Compared

By Ali Ahmad · Updated October 10, 2026 · Verified for Stardew Valley 1.6.15

Which building does each animal need?

Marnie sells every farm animal except the ones you hatch from special eggs, but an animal only fits a building of the right level. The first level of each building takes the basic animal. The Big versions take more, and the Deluxe versions take the rest, including the animals with the highest earnings:

• Coop: Chicken (800g).
• Big Coop: Duck (1,200g), and the Void Chicken, Golden Chicken and Dinosaur you hatch yourself.
• Deluxe Coop: Rabbit (8,000g).
• Barn: Cow (1,500g), and the Ostrich you hatch.
• Big Barn: Goat (4,000g).
• Deluxe Barn: Sheep (8,000g) and Pig (16,000g).

That means the first-level choice is only two animals: the chicken or the cow. The building prices and the number of animals each holds aren't in our verified data, so check Robin's list in the game before you commit your gold. The rest of this guide compares the animals themselves.

The coop: chickens, ducks and rabbits

Average daily luck, maximum happiness, no hay cost. Artisan goods assume the Artisan profession and a machine for every animal.

The Chicken is the cheapest animal in the game and the best value in the coop. It is mature in 3 days and its eggs sell for 165g a day at full hearts once you have petted it for a while. With Mayonnaise Machines and the Artisan profession that rises to 399g. The Duck costs 1.5 times as much and earns less (122g a day), so it is not a first choice. Its one perk, according to the wiki, is that it does not need hay or grass when it can swim on water. The Rabbit is expensive at 8,000g and pays back slowly, in about 45.7 days raw.

The barn: cows, goats, sheep and pigs

The Cow earns 2 times what a Chicken does at full hearts, at 1.9 times the price. Even at zero hearts a cow brings in 133g a day, more than twice a chicken at that stage. Goats and Sheep need a bigger building and a bigger price for a lower income than the Cow, so they are not first purchases. The Pig is the outlier: it pays back fastest of the expensive animals because of truffles, but only on dry days outside winter and only from a Deluxe Barn. Are pigs worth it? has the details.

Friendship matters more than price

The three hearts columns show how income grows as an animal gets fond of you. A Cow goes from 133g a day at no hearts to 330g at five, which is 2.5 times as much. A Chicken goes from 53g to 165g, about 3.1 times. The reason is quality: more affection means more silver, gold and iridium products, and a better chance of Large eggs and milk. Petting every animal daily and keeping them fed are the cheapest ways to raise income, and they cost nothing.

So the payback numbers above are best-case. In the first couple of weeks an animal earns closer to its zero-heart figure, and the choice between buildings is closer than the full-heart table suggests: a Chicken at no hearts earns 53g a day against 133g for a Cow. Check your own mix in the Animal Profit Calculator, which lets you set hearts, mood and professions.

Income per 1,000g spent

Another way to compare is to ask what each animal earns for every 1,000g you spend on it. This ignores the building, but it shows which purchase does the most for a small budget:

Selling raw, the Cow beats the Chicken on this measure at every friendship level: 88.7 against 66.3 a day per 1,000g at zero hearts, and 220 against 206.3 at five. The Chicken is attractive only because it is cheap. If you have 1,500g, a cow is a better use of it than one or two chickens, as long as you have a barn. The Rabbit, Sheep and Goat are the worst value for money. Once the goods are processed with Artisan the order changes: the Chicken leads at 498.8 a day per 1,000g, ahead of the Cow at 322, because mayonnaise lifts the Chicken's income so much. So buy the Chicken first if you will process, and the Cow first if you will sell raw.

How many machines does each animal keep busy?

If you plan to process products, this is how much machine time one animal at full friendship uses. A number below one means a machine can serve several animals:

• Cow: 0.13 Cheese Press .
• Chicken: 0.11 Mayonnaise Machine .
• Pig: 0.67 Oil Maker .
• Duck: 0.04 Mayonnaise Machine .
• Goat: 0.06 Cheese Press .
• Sheep: 0.08 Loom .
• Rabbit: 0.03 Loom .

One Mayonnaise Machine can look after about 9.1 chickens, which is why a coop of chickens needs only a few machines. A Cheese Press serves about as many cows or goats. The Pig is the exception, because truffle oil is slow and one pig keeps about two thirds of an Oil Maker busy. Planning the machines before the animals avoids eggs and milk piling up in chests.

Animals you hatch yourself

Four animals can't be bought. You hatch them from eggs, and the wiki says each has no other source:

The Golden Chicken is the standout, earning 868g a day raw, five times a regular chicken. You get it by hatching a Golden Egg in an Incubator, and it needs a Big Coop. The Ostrich is the other one worth a look when its goods are processed (659g a day), while the Void Chicken and Dinosaur earn little. None of them is a reason to pick a building.

A simple order to follow

1. Under about 1,500g: a Chicken in a Coop. It is the cheapest animal, and at full hearts it pays itself back in under a week.
2. Once you can afford a Barn and 1,500g: add a Cow. Per day it out-earns a Chicken from the start, and it too pays itself back in under a week of full-heart production.
3. Build up friendship before buying more. Every animal's income climbs steeply from zero to five hearts, so petted animals beat extra animals.
4. Machines before more animals. Mayonnaise and cheese machines raise income per animal by a lot (a Chicken from 165g to 399g), which can add more than another animal at low hearts would.
5. Save for the Deluxe Barn and a Pig if you have the Artisan profession and an Oil Maker: 4,473g a day at full hearts is far above everything else.

What these numbers leave out

• Building prices. Our data doesn't include what Robin charges, so the "pays back" columns count only the animal.
• Hay. Feeding costs are not included. Animals can eat grass outside instead.
• Time to full hearts. The full-heart figures take weeks to reach.
• Bundles. White and brown eggs, and large versions, matter for some Community Center bundles. See the Bundle Tracker.

Related

For every animal ranked in one table see all farm animals, and for the other way to earn from a building, Best fish for fish ponds.

Work it out for your farm

• Animal Profit CalculatorGold per day for every farm animal, raw or through machines, with hearts, mood and professions.

Where these numbers come from

Every number on this page is calculated by the same engine as our calculators, from game data taken from the Stardew Valley Wiki and cross-checked between at least two of its pages (last checked 2026-10-09). See the methodology, and tell us if something looks wrong in your game.

More guides

All tools and guides on this topic: Animals.

• Are Pigs Worth It?How fast a 16,000g pig pays for itself, and when Truffle Oil beats selling truffles.
• Speed-Gro vs FertilizerCrop by crop: when Speed-Gro adds a harvest, and when fertilizer just costs you gold.
• How Many Kegs Do I Need?Kegs per plant for Hops, Ancient Fruit, Starfruit and more, so no fruit waits in a chest.
• Best Fish for Fish PondsThe ponds that earn the most gold a day, raw or as Aged Roe and Caviar.