Hay Hopper
| Hay Hopper | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tool |
The Hay Hopper is the dispenser bolted to the wall of every Barn and Coop, and it is the link between the Silo outside and the animals inside. Clicking it pulls Hay out of the Silo and into the backpack, ready to be laid along the feeding bench where the animals can reach it. It works in both directions, so Hay carried in from elsewhere can be pushed back into storage through the same hopper. Every animal building comes with one already fitted, and it cannot be picked up or moved. In a Deluxe Barn or Deluxe Coop it stops being a daily chore altogether, because the building fills its own bench each morning.
Use
A Silo built by Robin is the other half of the system. Grass cut with a Scythe on the farm turns into Hay in the Silo, and the hopper is how that Hay comes back out. Without a Silo there is nothing for the hopper to dispense.
The routine is short. Click the hopper to take Hay, then place it along the feeding bench so the animals can eat. Each building draws from the same Silo stock, so a farm with several Barns is limited by the total stored rather than by anything in the building itself.
Returning Hay works the same way. Holding Hay and clicking the hopper puts it back into the Silo, which is useful after buying a batch from Marnie or after clearing a chest.
Upgrades
The hopper itself is fixed in place and never changes, but the building around it does. Upgrading to a Deluxe Barn or Deluxe Coop adds an autofeed system, and from then on Hay moves from the Silo to the bench every morning without anybody touching it.
The trade is a loss of manual control. An automatic building keeps its own bench full, so Hay cannot be drawn out of that hopper by hand while the system is running. Depositing Hay into it still works, so a Silo can be topped up from a chest at any time.
A married farmer eventually gets the same help for free. A spouse starts feeding the animals after a while, filling the benches in every Coop and Barn without being asked, which has the same side effect of a permanently full bench.
Notes
Hay can be stored outside a Silo. Drawing Hay from a hopper and dropping it into a chest builds a reserve beyond what the Silos hold, which is a common way to prepare for Winter when Grass stops growing entirely. The trick needs at least one Barn or Coop with room left on its bench, so a farm of nothing but Deluxe buildings has to make space first.
Blocking access does not work. Putting a chest or a machine in front of the hopper or the bench will not keep a spouse away from the feeding job, so a farm that wants manual control has to clear the bench another way.
A Silo holds a few hundred pieces of Hay, and a full one feeds a building of animals for a good stretch of Winter. Marnie sells Hay by the piece for a farm that cut too little in Fall, and buying it is far more expensive than mowing.
The hopper and the Incubator stand side by side in a Big Coop or Deluxe Coop, which makes that one wall the whole management interface for the building.
All Tools
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Iridium Rod | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Grabber | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Petter | 
|
50000g |
| Axes | - | - |
| Bamboo Pole | 
|
500g |
| Fiberglass Rod | 
|
1800g |
| Golden Scythe | 
|
- |
| Hay Hopper | 
|
- |
| Heater | 
|
2000g |
| Hoes | - | - |
| Incubator | 
|
- |
| Iridium Rod | 
|
7500g |
| Iridium Scythe | 
|
- |
| Milk Pail | 
|
1000g |
| Pans | - | - |
| Pickaxes | - | - |
| Scythe | 
|
- |
| Shears | 
|
1000g |
| Training Rod | 
|
25g |
| Trash Cans | - | - |
| Watering Cans | - | - |