Chicken husbandry | Animal husbandry Farming Simulator 2013 Guide

Basics

Chickens will probably be the first animals you will buy in the game, and they are the least time consuming when it comes to return on investment. To buy hens, open the shop menu (P), switch to animals in the upper tab, and buy as many as you like.

Chickens don't cost much and don't require tending or feeding.

The purchased hens will be automatically transported to the farm. With time, they will lay eggs; the only thing for us to do is to jump over the fence and collect them (simply walk over them). You can speed this process up by holding SHIFT, which corresponds to running. The current amount of laid eggs can be checked on the PDA under the statistics tab on the fifth page. The number in red means you have reached the maximum and have to collect them as soon as possible. The number of stored eggs is displayed on the first page of the statistics tab.

From time to time you're going to have to collect the eggs.

Sell the eggs in the nearby village - to get there, head north from the starting location head north (it's indicated by a special icon on your PDA). You can also jump to the tractor stationed there (TAB). Since hens doesn't have to be fed, laying eggs is their only function in the game. Selling eggs can serve as an additional source of income at the begging of the game, but later, as it progresses, most players tend to ignore it completely.

Eggs selling station.

Chicken husbandry

The chicken pen at your farm.

You have chicken pen at your farm. At the beginning of the game you will only have a single cock inside (who obviously doesn't lay eggs). Keeping chickens should be considered an additional activity rather than one which can bring you real wealth. However investing some money at the beginning of the game can bring you small but noticeable profits.

In the shop you can purchase chickens which will walk around the pen. The price is 40 $ each. You can buy several at the same time - for example 7 - and they will automatically appear at your farm. Chickens don't require any care. They just keep walking and pecking the ground. From time to time they will lay an egg in the pen. You have to collect them - just walk into them.

You can see the number of collected eggs on the PDA in the statistics screen. In order to sell them (10 $ per egg) you have to go to the purchase point - one can be found in the town in the north and the second even further to the north at the back of the Farm Shop. Example profit calculations:

• Investment: 280 $ for 7 chickens;
• Return on investment: 4 days (one chicken lays an average of one egg per day, with the price of one egg being 10 $ and a chicken 40 $, the return on investment is 4 days;
• Conclusion: you can earn some money on the side at the beginning, but it's not an activity recommended for connoisseurs of farming. The main problem is the need to head to the chicken pen to collect eggs and having to take them to a purchase point afterwards (e.g. to the town).

To have a better view of the eggs, you can enter the pen with a mower (you should have it rather soon) and mow all the grass. However keep in mind that it will grow back eventually.

The more chickens, the more eggs you will get. When the number of available eggs in the statistics turns red, it's a signal that you have to go to the pen and collect them.

If you want, you can buy more chickens, even 20. You will have proportionally more eggs (around 20 per day). The return on investment won't change - you will still need 4 days to regain the invested cash. You can check the number of eggs to collect in the PDA statistics screen.