Stardew Valley has a troublesome new 'disappearing chickens' bug, which Eric Barone is explaining away by declaring invisible coyotes are stealing them

Brea, CA - September 21: One of two coyotes howls as it pauses along The Tracks at Brea Trail in Brea early on Saturday morning, September 21, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

After months of waiting, Stardew Valley's big 1.6 update is finally live on consoles and mobile, and as if that wasn't enough creator Eric Barone also surprised the world by rolling out yet another update on top of the update: Stardew Valley 1.6.9, which introduces a fresh array of fixes, tweaks, updates, and new content—and on top of that, some surprise Stardew lore: Wild coyotes!

"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," Barone wrote on X. "If you leave the door closed for one day, it should save them. We will fix this.

"Lore: There is a wild coyote on the farm day 1 rn"

Okay, so it's not exactly new lore in the strictest sense, but I love the way Barone turns a bug into a feature by just waving his hands and declaring "environmental storytelling" in a deep, spooky voice. Not entirely seriously, of course, but given how Barone rolls I would be less than surprised to see wild coyotes added to the game in the inevitable Stardew Valley 1.7 update we'll all be talking about in spring 2025.

(For the record, I am not aware of any actual Stardew 1.7 update in the works, but I made the prediction in March and I'm not backing off.)

I'm not the only one who thinks it would be a good idea:

You should keep it and make the coyote adoptable — (Image credit: MagnoliaGameDev (Twitter))

I know how this snowballs. I'll log on next week and there'll actually be a coyote, called Grahbag or something and he'll drop off a golden dragon fruit that I put in the well at midnight to get a magic stick. — (Image credit: discostoo (Twitter))

when the big is patched we should be able to adopt it — (Image credit: itmebebii (Twitter))

Hoping you’re going to patch in a coyote howl when waking up on Day 2 — (Image credit: JakeARichmond (Twitter))

please add the coyote to stardew and make it adoptable as a pet — (Image credit: GustyMelon (Twitter))

Adoptable coyote update leak?! — (Image credit: KyyPie (Twitter))

NOW I WANT TO ADOPT THE COYOTE THO — (Image credit: bonstrosity (Twitter))

Yeah, we're never getting Haunted Chocolatier.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.