Let Chickens Eat Fruit

[ArmouredDingo]

Chickens are omnivorous and eat things besides grain. If It was being entirely realistic they should be able to eat grain, meat, fruits and vegetables. But chickens love fruit so having them able to eat at least fruit mash would make sense. 

Edited March 19, 2025 by ArmouredDingo

[Never Jhonsen]

Chickens will eat anything. They’ll eat their eggs, they’ll eat your fingers, they’ll even eat theirselves if they knew how they tasted.

Source: I used to raise them.

[ArmouredDingo]

5 hours ago, Never Jhonsen said:

Chickens will eat anything. They’ll eat their eggs, they’ll eat your fingers, they’ll even eat theirselves if they knew how they tasted.

Source: I used to raise them.

Exactly, chickens eating their own eggs is actually a problem.

[C_Man]

What is the problem with chickens eating their own eggs? They will only eat them if you put them into their trough. Besides that they can eat grain, which you can grow in mass.

[ArmouredDingo]

27 minutes ago, C_Man said:

What is the problem with chickens eating their own eggs? They will only eat them if you put them into their trough. Besides that they can eat grain, which you can grow in mass.

Chickens in real life don't just eat out of what bowl they are given. I was talking about irl chickens. Once they learn they can eat eggs it will take them a long time to forgot that they can eat eggs.

[Never Jhonsen]

32 minutes ago, C_Man said:

What is the problem with chickens eating their own eggs?

If you let your chickens eat their eggs, then you’ll never harvest a single egg again. They’ll be gone before you woke up.

[C_Man]

No, you will have to collect the eggs and then put them into their feeding troughs manually. The eggs won't naturally teleport into the troughs, if a hen lays some in a box or on the ground. they will just stay on the ground or in the box

 

[ArmouredDingo]

11 hours ago, C_Man said:

No, you will have to collect the eggs and then put them into their feeding troughs manually. The eggs won't naturally teleport into the troughs, if a hen lays some in a box or on the ground. they will just stay on the ground or in the box

 

I was talking about real life chickens. It was more more of just bringing up what they CAN eat.

[gooberflow]

Unsure if it's already a feature, but the birds being able to maybe eat fruit-mash might help with balancing since it's later in progression? And it also might mitigate the problem of berries spoiling very fast by encouraging players to turn it into cider with the bonus of more chicken feed?

[Amos_Shepherd]

Notable reed basket traps if set with fruit mash work on chickens.

[D3K01]

On 3/19/2025 at 1:52 AM, ArmouredDingo said:

Chickens are omnivorous and eat things besides grain. If It was being entirely realistic they should be able to eat grain, meat, fruits and vegetables. But chickens love fruit so having them able to eat at least fruit mash would make sense. 

i get where you are finding this online, as it is a common misconception, but chickens aren't omnivorous, they're insectivores, there is nothing that makes a chicken happier than chasing down a random cricket that found its way into the hen house, even if it takes them an hour to find it. their digestive systems are capable of handling fruits and grains, like most omnivores or carnivores, but they are primarily Insectivores. i have fed chickens only Black Soldier Fly Grubs, and the eggs they produce are so healthy i have actually had trouble cracking them for cooking. its also why they eat eggs so readily, the materials often found inside eggs are similar in content to insects.

i like the idea of making Locust corpses gatherable and then using them to feed chickens for more egg production.

[DakotaGrey]

On 4/7/2025 at 8:56 AM, D3K01 said:

i get where you are finding this online, as it is a common misconception, but chickens aren't omnivorous, they're insectivores, there is nothing that makes a chicken happier than chasing down a random cricket that found its way into the hen house, even if it takes them an hour to find it. their digestive systems are capable of handling fruits and grains, like most omnivores or carnivores, but they are primarily Insectivores. i have fed chickens only Black Soldier Fly Grubs, and the eggs they produce are so healthy i have actually had trouble cracking them for cooking. its also why they eat eggs so readily, the materials often found inside eggs are similar in content to insects.

i like the idea of making Locust corpses gatherable and then using them to feed chickens for more egg production.

Chickens are omnivores. I grew up with chickens and I've watched them chase down and eat mice. The hens will even fight over it. I've seen them eat small snakes as well. I promise you, they dont mind eating meat. 

[Echo Weaver]

On 4/7/2025 at 9:56 AM, D3K01 said:

i like the idea of making Locust corpses gatherable and then using them to feed chickens for more egg production.

I have no horse in this race because I only know chickens to look at them, but I wanted to point out that Vintage Story locusts are machines. 

[Diff]

Maybe we could get chickens to eat the grasshopper particles that hiss at all hours of the day

[Facethief]

4 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

I have no horse in this race because I only know chickens to look at them, but I wanted to point out that Vintage Story locusts are machines. 

*CRUNCH*

They taste fine to me…

… can I just say that my immediate thought on seeing “make locusts edible by chickens” was “oh, the big light bulbs on their tail!”

And as a chicken owner myself, I can attest to the fact that they will eat anything that moves, has moved recently, or looks like it might move. Anything I give them is fair game, with the exception of oranges, other poisonous things (but I’ve heard they’ll try), and anything too tough for them to peck through, such as whole pumpkins; although I will note that I’ve never seen a cantaloupe rind eaten to the point that there’s no green on it outside of my coop.

[LadyWYT]

I mean if we want to be ultra-realistic about it...the chickens should have a chance to eat each other, as well as a chance to eat their own eggs. In general, chickens aren't terribly picky about what they eat--food is food, and when opportunity presents they'll happily take it.

[Professor Dragon]

Yes, but no.

I can't remember a single time when I've had (a) hungry chickens (b) spare fruit mash and (c) the enthusiasm to take the mash to the animals.
Besides, it kinds of fits a theme of keeping some specific food types for specific animals. 

I've got a whole pen of pigs just outside, and they've never tasted fruit mash once, even though I've got an overworked fruit press in my cellar.

Why? Because it's simply not convenient or needed to feed it to them. Not when there is an abundance of vegetables and grains from any decent sized farm.

So in short, while this could be done. However, I don't see the problem that it is addressing.

I hate to be the one to say it, but this looks like a prime candidate for a mod. This information is probably held in a single line in a .json about what a chicken can eat, and you can modify that directly. There are mods out there that do similar already - I haven't searched to see if there is specifically one for chickens and mash. eg: https://mods.vintagestory.at/diversediets (EDIT: You could try contacting this mod author and seeing if they will add your request. See details below.)

Professor Dragon.

EDIT

The file you want to change what chickens eat is: \assets\survival\blocktypes\wood\trough-small.json

Add your own section for mash, similar to the existing sections:

            {
                code: "rye",
                content: { type: "item", code: "grain-rye" }, 
                quantityPerFillLevel: 1,
                maxFillLevels: 8,
                shapesPerFillLevel: ["block/wood/trough/small/grainfill1", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill1", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill2", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill2", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill3", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill3", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill4", "block/wood/trough/small/grainfill4"],
                foodFor: ["chicken-*"],
                textureCode: "contents-rye"
            },

You'll probably want to go to the files for large trough and copy over some of the details for "mash" so that you get the textures right, and then add chickens to the list:
\trough-large.json

            {
                code: "fruitmash",
                content: { type: "item", code: "pressedmash-*" }, 
                quantityPerFillLevel: 2,
                maxFillLevels: 8,
                shapesPerFillLevel: ["block/wood/trough/large/grainfill1", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill1", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill2", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill2", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill3", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill3", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill4", "block/wood/trough/large/grainfill4"],
                foodFor: ["pig-*", "sheep-*"],
                foodForDesc: "trough-acceptable-pigs-sheep",
                textureCode: "contents-fruitmash",
            }

Professor Dragon.

Edit to edit

Okay, so not a "single line" - but as close to a small mod as an enthusiastic Vintage Story player could hope for.
Going for top score would also include updates to the Handbook to include what chickens can eat, and a refresh to the warning message that they can't eat mash.
Neither of which is required.
You can do a search string for words like "chicken", "trough" and "mash" against the .json files to start with.
Not sure what else is required. I haven't done mods yet - just pointing the people with enthusiasm in the right direction  Good luck!

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[LadyWYT]

3 hours ago, Professor Dragon said:

I can't remember a single time when I've had (a) hungry chickens (b) spare fruit mash and (c) the enthusiasm to take the mash to the animals.
Besides, it kinds of fits a theme of keeping some specific food types for specific animals. 

I've got a whole pen of pigs just outside, and they've never tasted fruit mash once, even though I've got an overworked fruit press in my cellar.

Why? Because it's simply not convenient or needed to feed it to them. Not when there is an abundance of vegetables and grains from any decent sized farm.

It's something that's probably more useful in multiplayer than it is in singleplayer. I do like to feed mash to my animals in singleplayer, just because it's something different, and useful, and I don't always need the compost. However, when playing with my friend, the food reserves can get a bit thin sometimes, so feeding mash to the critters becomes a much more attractive option.

That being said, I'm also pretty sure that we're able to feed fruit mash to the chickens in our game.  However, it could be a modded feature and not vanilla, as we are playing with a handful of mods. In any case, if one is to try it in vanilla, the fruit mash needs to be put into a small trough for chickens, as they won't be able to eat from a large trough.

[Facethief]

5 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

That being said, I'm also pretty sure that we're able to feed fruit mash to the chickens in our game.  However, it could be a modded feature and not vanilla, as we are playing with a handful of mods. In any case, if one is to try it in vanilla, the fruit mash needs to be put into a small trough for chickens, as they won't be able to eat from a large trough.

I’m 90% sure it’s vanilla.

[Professor Dragon]

On 3/19/2025 at 5:52 PM, ArmouredDingo said:

Chickens are omnivorous and eat things besides grain. If It was being entirely realistic they should be able to eat grain, meat, fruits and vegetables. But chickens love fruit so having them able to eat at least fruit mash would make sense. 

18 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

That being said, I'm also pretty sure that we're able to feed fruit mash to the chickens in our game.  However, it could be a modded feature and not vanilla, as we are playing with a handful of mods. In any case, if one is to try it in vanilla, the fruit mash needs to be put into a small trough for chickens, as they won't be able to eat from a large trough.

12 hours ago, Facethief said:

I’m 90% sure it’s vanilla.

@LadyWYT and @Facethief are right, @ArmouredDingo.

It looks like this is in base game v1.21.5 (and probably earlier). 

Use a Small Trough and put in some Fruit Mash (any type). I've just done this (no mods that I have that should be impacting this), and the chickens yummed it up.

Use the Tooltips to see. There is an option where you hover over a block and it cycles through all the things you can do with it. Or just put some food in a trough and hover over it, and it will tell you what can eat it.

 

Professor Dragon.

Edited October 15, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Teh Pizza Lady]

@Professor Dragon taking us to school!

[Tabbot95]

I say let chickens eat mice;

they should be little terrors to anything that is smaller than them including other birds (if/when any of those things are added to vanilla)