Not All Chickens are not Equal on Farmville

It is not surprising that chickens can be found on Farmville, but what becomes clear is that all chickens not equal. So far I have come across four types of chickens:

1. White
2. Brown
3. Black
4. Golden

Here is the breakdown of coins on , harvest time and selling/harvest returns:

White Chicken

Harvest: 8 Coins

Harvest Time: 1 Day

Sell: 20 Coins

Brown Chicken

Harvest: 16 Coins

Harvest Time: 1 Day

Sell: 20 Coins

Black Chicken

Harvest: 32 Coins

Harvest Time: 1 Day

Sell: 20 Coins

Golden Chicken

Harvest: 64 Coins

Harvest Time: 1 Day

Sell: 20 Coins

Analysis

As can be seen the return from a golden chicken is 8 times that of a white chicken. The return on a black chicken is 4 times that of a white chicken but half that of a golden chicken.

The coup can be expanded to hold 60 chickens, so at the balance of chickens you have for maximum reward and least effort.

The other thing to note is the distribution of the chickens in Chicken Coop. Depending on the ratio of types of chickens, it will determine the probability of the type of mystery chickens you will probably find from the chicken coup to share.

Farmville Gold Rush Ends Today

The Farmville Gold rush ends today. The actual time is 9:00 p.m. PDT. Farmers therefore have the next few hours to complete. The Gold has allowed users to gain extra fuel, XP, among other gifts.

Farmville outage on Facebook

Virutal Farmers are having problems accessing their Farmville accounts via Facebook. A message on the Farmville fanpage on Facebook reads:

"If you are unable to load FarmVille from your Facebook page, you may try to launch from FarmVille.com."

Interestingly the problem seems to be affecting at least one other Zynga Games as Virtual Chefs are having similar problems access Cafeworld via Facebook.

Farmers can still access Farmville via FarmVille.com and this might not be a bad thing.

Farmville now has stallions

The information below is incorrect. A post with the corrected information will be posted soon.

In this week's round of releases, Zynga has released a Stallion that you can now add to your horse barn. This works similarly to how the Bull works in the Diary Farm with the Cows.

This is a interesting development as now you will need to find space on the farm for foals, as that will be natural result of the union of stallions and mares.

What you will need to do if you have your barn filled with horses(mares) is to remove one and add the Stallion as soon as you have found one wondering on your farm.

The information above is incorrect. A post with the corrected information will be posted soon.

Framville releases new items; no dogs yet

This week Farmville has released a few new items. They can be found below. As for the pet dog, the annoucements says the A small percentage of our users will see the new Golden Retriever Puppy in the Market for varying prices while others will just see coming soon.

However the Dog is not available but it appears it will cost Farmville Cash not Coins to get the puppy when the release is final.

Limited Edition Items:

Provencal Shed - 24 Farm Cash
Café - 42 Farm Cash
Bike with Basket - 2000 Coins
Horse Sculpture - 5000 Coins

Decorations:
Dogwood Tree - 4 Farm Cash

Animals:
Percheron Horse - 20 Farm Cash

Outlook

I am not sure I getting any dog for the farmville. It cost Farmville Cash, I will do with out. However, for some users it will prove a nice feature.

Farmville Dog coming

We have seen the teasers and more clues are coming. The last clue is that the supposedly found in Petville. According to FarmvilleFreak the pet likely be a dog and this has pretty much been confirmed.

Now Petville is just one of the many games that Zynga has. Zynga appears to be trying hard at cross promotion of their products.

This is being doing in many ways as outlined in the examples below. However, I have some issues with the cross promotions that I will address.

• Hot Rod Tractors in Farmville for Mafia Players at a certain level
• Poker Players to meeting in Mafia Wars
• Invite your CafeWorld Friends to play Farmville and now
• The find out more about the Pets, you will need to go to PetVille.

Now I have no problem with the mixing of Petville, CafeWorld, FishVille and Farmville as I believe those are fine for a general audience but Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker are for a different audience.

Zynga should try and keep the games as open to people of all persuasion by providing flexible options that will not be offensive to beliefs. For example, there are no Pigs on the farm I manage.

Allow people to chose the games the love to play and promote the right games to the right people.

See

• Keep Mafia Wars out of Farmville

Farmville and the Chicken Coup Expansions

Farmville owners are only allowed to purchase on Chicken Coup. The coup can house initially 20 Chickens. The Coup can then be expanding twice.

• 20 to 40
• 40 to 60

You can either purchase the expansion or you can get your friends to help you. You will need to get your 10 friends to help you

For those you have Farmville cash $10 will buy you an expansion.

Analysis

Given the low return per click(yes my mouse click is valuable), getting your chickens in the coup is critical. One click allows you to collect eggs from up to 20, 40 or 60 chickens depending on the size of the coup. Unless you have farmhands, purchased or gifted, putting your chickens in a Coup makes common sense.

Look out for 'not all chickens are equal', as we look at what chickens to keep in and out of the coup or at all.

Farmville St. Patrick Promotions end today

Unless there is some change, The St. Patrick day's promotions should end to day. After igniting a Gold Rush, St Patrick's day is here.

Many like myself might not have known what St. Patrick's day was about. According to Wikipedia, also know as St. Patty's day is annual feast days that celebrates St. Patrick a patron saint of Ireland and is generally celebrated on March 17. A big part of the tradition surrounding the holiday is the color green.

Like many holidays it has a Catholic tradition with it. It is celebrated as a National holiday in Ireland, a bank holiday in Northern Ireland but is widely celebrated in the English Isles, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Montserrat in the Caribbean.

Well Easter is now around the corner so you can expect the Zynga folks to be doing something for that season.

Farmville introduces Comment Box

Farmville has introduced the comments box. The comments box allows the following

• See who visited your farm
• Place a Signpost
• Send Gifts
• See who fertilized your farm
• See who fed your chickens
• Send comments (or messages) (which can be posted on Facebook and or Signpost)
• Email Comments

Zynga, the makers of Farmville seem to be lining up to ensure that what Facebook pulls the plug, the many users can still communicate with each other effectively.

Shamrock,Green Hellebores, Green Roses and more for Seven Days

Farmville announced another 7 day Special, yesterday March 10, 2010. This time it is in the seeds and animals area of the market. This special promotion should end on St. Patrick's day., March 17, 20101. It features Shamrock, Green Hellebores and Green Rose as three of the limited edition offerings.. This is the same time that the Rush for Gold will end. The details are shown below.

For those interested in more statistics, the following represents the coins earned hour and XP (i.e. Experience Per Hour)

Shamrock

XP/Hr: 0.50

Coins/Hr: 6.25

Time: 4 hours

Level available: 5

Green Hellebores

XP/Hr: 0.19

Coins/Hr: 5.25

Time: 16 hours

Level available: 15

Green Roses

XP/Hr: 0.17

Coins/Hr: 6.25

Time: 1 day
Level available: 30

For those who want to spend Farmville Cash there is the Mystery Box and the Kelly Green Cow

Strategic outlook ( At level 32)

If you are able to plant 4 hour crops, Shamrock is good for generating experiences and are in-line with most crops that fall in 4 hours and under harvest time category. Where it falls down is in terms of coins per hour, with Blueberries and Blackberries still being better options

For crops in the 12-24 hour range, Green Hellebores and Green Roses are good choices and should be definitely considered. In terms of XP/Hr, Hellebores are ahead of Green Roses but on Coins/Hr, Green Roses are best. Overall, I would give the edge to Green Roses with the primary reason being planting a 16 hour crop is tricky for most Farmville farmers given their schedules. Make Hay while the sunshines.

Note: Coins/Hour represents net coins gained per hour. 1 Farmville day actually is 23 hours but calculations are done using 24 hours=day.

Farmville and World Food Programme

Farmville is not all about games. When the earthquake struck in Haiti, Zynga launched the Zynga releif fund. According to the banner below, taken from the Zynga Website, 100% of the funds will be contributed to the World Food Program. Users in the USA, can text "Zynga" to 90999.

The video below is feedback from the work be done in Haiti. It interesting to note the Farmville scarf being worn by the speaker in the video as he thanks the Farmville players for their contribution.

Fuel on the Plow

The availability of fuel has been a big problem to tractor owners in Farmville but now it should get a little easier. Things are now different and you should be able to get fuel quicker and easier.

How you can now receive fuel.

• As you plow - The fuel can now be shared with friends.
• Fertilise your neighbours' farm
• At level 12 and above

Once you are at level 12 you are eligible to receive fuel and you will now receive fuel from your neighbours' feed - up to 150 neighbours

Tractor and Fuel use

With the greater availability of fuel, owners of larger farms should find using the tractors a better option. These tractors are not fuel efficient but they are must faster than manual labour. Here is some details on fuel use.

• Each Tank contains 150 units of fuel
• 1 unit is used for 1 plot of land used

This means that a 12x12 plot will consume 144 units of fuel or close to 1 tank of fuel.

Use Wisely

The key to making the best of your tractor is to ensure your lots are arranged.

• properly aligned - If they are not the use of the tractor is a waste
• in 2x2 blocks i.e 4 plots. or 3x3 plots i.e 9 plots if you have the Hot Rod tractors

The tractor is able to plow, seed and harvest for 4 plots (2x2) or 9 plots (3x3) at a time. This can reducing plowing, seeding and planting time by as much as 75% to 89% compared to the manual way. One mouse click per plot versus four(4) or nine(9) depending on which tractor you are using.

Clearly Fuel sales could be a good source of revenue for Zynga. Fuel is available using Farmville Cash, paid for using your credit card or paypal, for between 3 -65 Farmville cash for 1 fuel tank to 50 fuel tanks.

If you are a Farmville Addict, the greater availability of Fuel will be welcomed.

Farmville Wishlists are here

In an early post, I had mention that Farmville was going to allow users to create a wishlist of items they need. The wishlist is now here,apparently released overnight, and you can go ahead and start creating those wishing for those items.

It should be noted that some items can only be added to the wishlist based on following:

• Your level attained
• Access Point: some are Farmville.com exclusive

If you access Farmville using Farmville.com rather than Facebook, you have access to more gifts.

How To add items to the wishlist.

Once you click on your gift box, you will see an option to create make a wish. Select the item and add it to your wishlist.

Related:

• Farmville Wishlist