Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone invents new lore after the latest update starts killing chickens: "There is a wild coyote on the farm day 1 rn"

Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has shared some new lore to explain a chicken-deleting bug while a fix is being implemented.

Stardew Valley update 1.6.9 launched today for PC, consoles, and mobile, and Barone took to Twitter with a fairly alarming warning for those who've updated to the latest version: "PSA: there is currently an issue, if you start a new farm on the meadowlands farm and open the animal door on the coop day 1, your chickens will disappear."

This seems like a pretty niche problem that hopefully won't affect too many players before it's patched out, and Barone clarified that "if you leave the door closed for one day, it should save" your chickens. However, in the meantime he made the bug canon by simply inventing a wild coyote that's hungry for chickens.

"We will fix this. Lore: There is a wild coyote on the farm day 1 rn," he said, eliciting an audible chuckle from me. Oh, those wily coyotes. 

As terribly funny as this all is, if you've played much of Stardew Valley you'll know chickens don't exactly come cheap at 800G each, so if you are starting a new farm on the Meadowlands, do be careful not to open your coop's animal door until an in-game day has passed. Even if money's not a factor, death by coyote is no way to treat your feathered friends.

Elsewhere, Stardew Valley 1.6.9 adds The Sims-style cheat codes and a "new friend" who can restore some of the game's rarest items "for a price".