Chicken (DS)

Chickens are an available animal for purchase in Harvest Moon: DS and Harvest Moon DS: Cute.

In order to house chickens on your farm, you must have a poultry barn built. Each barn holds a maximum of 4 chickens (or a combination of chickens and ducks), and there can be a max of 7 poultry barns on the farm at one time. An adult chicken can be purchased from Popuri by calling her at the Poultry Farm for 1,5000g each.

All chickens are female. Although there are no "fertilized" eggs in game, an egg can be placed in the incubator to hatch chicks. This saves money, and chicks born on the farm will also have more hearts by default.

Chickens have an average life span of 5 years when properly cared for. If your chicken dies, Takakura will visit you in the morning to give you the bad news. Any animal that dies on the farm will have a huge impact on your friendship with villagers, regardless of the circumstances. It's advised to load up your last save, which will allow you to sell the animals if they are old, or if you have a low quality barn. Another option is to reload and continue to playing, as the death event is random, if they died of old age.

Stages
There are two stages of chickens: chicks and chickens. To have a chick, one must put an egg in the incubator and it will hatch in 3 days.

Chicks


 * At this young premature stage, they are unable to produce eggs. Chicks are only obtainable by putting egg into the incubator. You will be able to start increasing their friendship early on by picking them up daily, using the Touch Glove, and putting them outside. It takes 9 full days for a chick to grow into a chicken and start producing eggs daily.

Chickens


 * Adult chickens will lay one egg per day, provided that they are healthy and happy. Increasing a chicken's heart level is important to lay bigger eggs, producing more profit. Any healthy adult chicken can compete in the Chicken Festival that takes place in the Summer.

Care

 * You cannot brush chickens. To increase affection, pick your chickens up each day. You can further increase affection by using the Touch Glove. Chickens also gain affection when placed outside on sunny days.
 * By using the Touch Glove, you can increase your chicken's LP by 1 point for a Blue Heart (1000 points), 2 LP for a Green Heart (5000 points), and 3 LP for a Red Heart (9000 points) each day.
 * Chickens eat chicken feed, which can be purchased from the Poultry Farm. Unfortunately, there is no way to make your own feed, so make sure you don't run out!
 * If your chicken becomes sick, you can cure her with Animal Medicine. Animal Medicine can be purchased from the Poultry Farm or from Yodel Ranch.
 * Be sure to build your poultry barns out of good, sturdy material. Otherwise, the barn will cave in during a storm, killing every chicken that his housed in that barn. This will drive down your friendship with every villager in town, and leave a huge mess on your farm. You will also have to spend the money and materials to build another barn!

Animal Products
Healthy adult chickens will produce an egg daily. Eggs can be cooked, put into an incubator, shipped or given as a gift.