FarmVille barn raising: The storage solution you've been waiting for?

When FarmVille released storage options a few months ago, players called it "half baked" and "useless." Now it looks like FarmVille is trying to rectify that with a "good ol' fashioned barn raising," which will increase the number of items you can store.

To hold a barn raising, click on one of your barns or sheds and select 'Expand Storage' in the pop up window. That will open another window where all of your storage buildings will be listed. Click the blue 'Expand' button under one of the barns, and you'll be asked to share a message on your Facebook page, asking friends to 'help' you with your barn raising. If you have 10 friends help in three days, your storage will be automatically expanded. Friend who help will earn 100 coins for their efforts.

Once at least 10 friends help raise your barn, you be able to store more items automatically. There are three levels of expansions per building, and each level will allow you to store more items. Below, see exactly how much more space you'll gain per building, per level of expansion, courtesy of Facebook Insider.

Barns:
Level 1 (Red Barn) – increases storage from 0 spots to 6 spots (your initial purchase)
Level 2 (Big Barn) – increases storage from 6 spots to 11 spots
Level 3 (Huge Barn) – increases storage from 11 spots to 18 spots

Tool Sheds:
Level 1 (Tool Shed) – increases storage from 0 spots to 2 spots (your initial purchase)
Level 2 (Big Shed) – increases storage from 2 spots to 7 spots
Level 3 (Huge Shed) – increases storage from 7 spots to 14 spots

We still wonder -- is this the storage solution virtual farmers have been waiting for? We're still on the fence.

Farmville Dairy Farms Explained

Dairy farms are a somewhat recent addition to the game which add some excitement, fun and complexity to managing the cows on your farm. You can store up to twenty cows inside the dairy farm, which will make harvesting your cows much faster and easier. Instead of needing to click on 20 individual cows to harvest milk from them, you only need to click once each day on the dairy farm. It can make the whole process of owning and managing cows in Farmville much more enjoyable.

Dairy farms also have some very important additional benefits. Owning a dairy farm increases your chances to gain extra fertilizer when you fertilize the crops of your friends. Remember that you benefit as well when you fertilize the crops of your friends and you gain both coins and XP.

You can also take advantage of some special strategies and cheats with dairy farms in Farmville. An important thing to know is that the completion status of the enitre dairy farm follows the completion status of the first cow you put inside. So by using a simple trick you can maximize your return through switching cows in and out of the dairy farm. It’s a little confusing at first, but here is how it works. The first thing to do is to have a full dairy farm with 20 cows in it and several additional cows wandering on your fields. The more extra cows you have, the more times you’ll be able to repeat the trick. Once you have everything set up, wait one full day for all of the cows to get to 100% complete. The next step is to harvest your dairy farm. Then, empty the dairy farm completely. Next, put one of the additional cows you had on your fields into the dairy farm. Because these cows are also at 100% completion, your dairy farm will suddenly jump back to 100% complete. Now for the sneaky part: put 19 of your harvested cows back into the dairy farm and then harvest the whole dairy farm again. It will treat all 20 cows inside as being complete. Now just repeat the process as many times as you can, depending on how many additional cows you had on your field. It involves a lot of clicking, but the amount of coins you can make in a day using this technique is exceptional.

Now, a little bit about calves in FarmVille. These are a recent addition to the game, introduced in December, 2009. In addition to being ridiculously cute, calves are extremely profitable animals to keep on your farm. There are currently four different kinds of calves: regular, pink, brown and alien (green). When a player puts a bull inside his or her dairy farm, there’s a fifty percent chance that it will mate with one of the cows inside and produce a calf. Your friends can adopt the calves produced in your farm and each calf may only be adopted by one friend. Although calves cannot be placed inside the dairy farm, they are very profitable animals, and are harvested once each day for 80 coins each.

One more thing about dairy farms in Farmville: you can have up to five of them on your farm at once, each holding 20 cows for a total of up to one hundred cows in your dairy farms. That’s a lot of cows, but it allows you to build up a very impressive dairy farming operation in the game.

FarmVille Ribbons Knock On Wood These Tips Will Increase Your Earnings

It can be very easy to overlook the power of FarmVille achievement ribbons since you earn most of them by simply doing what you have to do to care for your farm anyway. After all, you earn ribbons for plowing, harvesting, and even for spending money at the local market. However, the bonuses that you receive can be quite large, so you can really give yourself a boost by making it a priority to earn these ribbons. Given the very small amount of required effort, it is well worth it and so easy to accomplish.

Ribbons Galore

There is a nice stack of ribbons that you can earn, and to spice things up new ones are added. Some are easy to get like the Local Celebratory ribbon – just need neighbors for that one.

I love the Knock on Wood ribbon. You see I am a tree hugger and have surrounded my farm with trees (around the edges). Of, course you have to plants and harvest unique trees to get this one, which can be a lot of work. However, for me it was well worth it to be a proud owner of the Knock on Wood ribbon achievement.

Know What To Do To Get Your Ribbons

If you are going to be working on earning ribbons, you will need to know what you have to do to earn them. You can learn this easily by simply clicking on the ribbon icon at the bottom of your screen. This will bring up a window that will allow you to check out the many different types of ribbons that are available and learn what you will have to do to in order to earn each one.

Earning Ribbons or Complimentary?

While some of the accomplishments rewarded by ribbons are complimentary, many others are not. For example, you can earn some ribbons by harvesting a certain number of vegetable crops and some others by harvesting a certain number of fruit crops. Because you only have a limited amount of space to devote to your crops, it is best if you focus on one of these achievements first, and then shift to the other.

Trying to split your resources between the two will only make it harder for you to accomplish both of them.

Some separate ribbons are indeed complimentary, however. For example, you can earn ribbons by spending money in the market, as well as by owning a certain number of decorations. Since you have to spend money in the store to accumulate these decorations, you can work towards both of these ribbons simultaneously. It makes total sense right?

Is Your Layout Setup For Max Ribbon Earning

Another option for you is to change the layout of your farm in order to earn ribbons more quickly. For instance, if you know that you are going after some ribbons that have to do with harvesting or planting crops, you should definitely maximize the amount of space you devote to plowed land.

Once you have taken care of these accomplishments however, you can adjust your layout to reflect your new goals. You do not want to get rid of all of your plowed plots however; you just need to make sure that you have enough space set aside to pursue your new goals.

Share Your Wealth With Your Neighbors

Since you can share the wealth with your friends every time that you earn a ribbon, you should be sure to take full advantage of all of the bonuses that you can earn when your friends collect ribbons as well.

Checking your news feed frequently for your friends’ announcements and then clicking on the link to collect the bonuses that they are offering will be a great way to earn some extra coins and get ahead in FarmVille quickly. Just make sure you are offering the bonuses to them as well so that they share with you every time they have the opportunity to. Fair is fair!

Follow the above steps and you will soon be on the way to achieving your next ribbon.

FarmVille Animal Mystery Box is now available!

A new FarmVille ANIMAL Mystery Box has just debuted in the FarmVille Market.

FarmVille Mystery Animals Icon

These Animal Mystery Boxes promise to contain exclusive special edition FarmVille animals that cannot be purchased in the Market or adoptable. They are one of a kind animals ranging from small to large and are all animated.

The Animal Mystery Box costs 20 FV$ or farm cash and is available for the next 7 days!

FarmVille Animal Mystery Box 1 Notice

FarmVille Mystery Animal

FarmVille Freak Jefferson's Animal Mystery Box Family



FarmVille Mystery Animal Box Peacock



FarmVille Animal Mystery Box Ox



FarmVille Animal Mystery Box Jackalope



FarmVille Animal Mystery Box Deer

FarmVille Animal Mystery Box Buffalo

FarmVille giftable Cashew Tree

FarmVille has added a Cashew Tree! Notice that the Lemon Tree is no longer available as a giftable item.

The Cashew Tree is a giftable item only. It can only be sent or received as a gift by one of your FarmVille neighbors.

The Cashew Tree is ready to harvest in 3 days and produces 41 coins.

New FarmVille Ribbons: Cat Lady & Need for Seed

In an update made on 01.12.10 FarmVille added two new ribbons.

The Need for Seed Ribbon rewards you when you use your Seeder tractor to plant crops or seeds.

Requirements for FarmVille Need for Seed Ribbon:

• Yellow Ribbon: Plant 200 plots with the Seeder, 50 XP and 1,000 coins
• White Ribbon: Plant 1000 plots with the Seeder, 100 XP and 2,500 coins
• Red Ribbon: Plant 2500 plots with the Seeder, 2500 XP and 5,000 coins
• Blue Ribbon: Plant 10000 plots with the Seeder, 1000 XP and 10,000 coins

The much awaited Cat Lady Ribbon will reward you for brushing your FarmVille Cats! Finally, making all those cats useful and simultaneously upsetting all those dog lovers who keep asking, "Where is the FarmVille Dog?".

Requirements for FarmVille Cat Lady Ribbon:

• Yellow Ribbon: Collect from 5 Cats, 50 XP and 1,000 coins
• White Ribbon: Collect from 50 Cats, 100 XP and 2,500 coins
• Red Ribbon: Collect from 100 Cats, 250 XP and 5,000 coins
• Blue Ribbon: Collect from 250 Cats, 1000 XP and 10,000 coins

FarmVille glitch: Chicken Coops triggering more coops!

The latest glitch in FarmVille is allowing multiple Chicken Coops (again)!

Many FarmVille Freaks have reported that after they placed their chickens in Coops, their Coops "hatched" another Chicken Coop!!! So, without "cheating" they've legally obtained multiple coops. No notice appears stating what's happened, when another Coop appears.

Some are triggering the glitch merely by moving their Chicken Coops, while others report triggering it while placing Chickens inside.

Here are some testimonials from fellow FarmVille Freaks on how they believe the glitch was triggered:

"My chicken coop hatched a new chicken coop, so now i have 4, can you put a notice for comments? There was no message popup, just the pink icon after i just harvested the coop for coins only, so i clicked move and there was number 4." (FarmVille Freak Bridget M., Australia)

"I thought I should forward a picture of my farm to let you know something strange happened. While I was trying to put gold chickens into the coop, I noticed that the count didn't go up, so I moved the coop thinking that I had accidentally placed it behind the coop. When I moved the coop, there was another coop there holding one white chicken and the gold one I was missing. I didn't do anything to create it, it was just there. This morning the same thing happened with a chicken not going in and I moved the coop to get it and there was another chicken coop. I just don't want you to think I'm trying to cheat." (FarmVille Freak Robin).

"... my friend Luke got a "bug" or strange thing at farmville .. he didn't print screen it, but he discoverd some golden eggs and got the best presents EVER ... and didn't get it once,, but 10 times or so .. he got CHICKENS COOPS !!!!!!!!!!! It's true, saw it with my own eyes .. he now has 14 chicken coops, and didn't use the "hatch an egg coop bug" (it won't work anymore). I thought maybe in the future you can hatch chicken coops from golden chickens ?" (FarmVille Freak Gert, Netherlands).

"I posted this on farmville forums because I lost a coop of brown hens, what was left in its place was an empty coop with a single white hen. Odd. I was upset, so I filled it and it too disappeared! I had 12 coops due to the other glitch before they fixed it. but now I have 27. I moved the empty coop off the spot and found another empty one, and another and another until I had discovered 13 plus my one with the brown hens and the partly full one. The image below shows the group after I found them today." (anonymous Farmville Freak)

"Hi just got 11 chicken coops in a glitch!" (FarmVille Freak Ritwik S.)

"1/9/10: OMG, thank goodness I decided to visit FarmvilleFreak and read the posts. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone and the Farmville Police were going to raid my farm.! Please, please I did not do anything illegal. I don't know what happened!. First, I was moving around my coop because I have almost 100 chickens, 2 days ago all my animals started walking and I was trying to see if I missed any behind my coop. When I moved my coop an empty coop appeared making me think I lost all my chickens. I freaked! Then I moved the empty coop and my original was behind it. So, I filled the empty one and when I moved it another appeared. I filled that one and another appeared. I had to rearrange my farm to find space for these coops. Every time I moved my coop I got another coop. So now I have 13 coops on my farm and I'm afraid to go near them. Please do not penalize me because I did not do anything illegal. I love love love Farmville and do not want to be shut down." (FarmVille Freak Sheila M)

FarmVille updates fertilizing to 50 neighbors per day

Lately we farmers have all been experiencing trouble fertilizing our neighbors' farms. In the past week or so fertilizing seemed to max out around 20.

FarmVille has been updated to allow you to fertilze 50 neighbors farms per day, meaning you can only fertilize 50 neighbors in a 24 hour period.

Official word from Zynga Forum moderator Lexilicious:

"There have been some minor changes made to Fertilizer today. Please find the relevant details below:Users can now fertilize 50 of their Neighbors Farms. Once you have Fertilized 50 Farms, you will receive a message in the upper left-hand corner stating: "Out of Fertilizer". This is an intended change to FarmVille. Once you have run out, more fertilizer will be available to you in 24 hours."

FarmVille Barn Raising and Multiplying Coops

FarmVille farmers are only allowed to purchase one chicken coop per farm, but shortly after farmers were given the option of expanding their storage facilities, a strange occurrence was noticed. When farmers began adding chickens to their coops, some coops multiplied. Others noticed the mystical multiplication when they tried to move their coops to a new location. In many instances, the new coop came with an additional white chicken and the coops arrived at 98% "ready."

FarmVille Barnraising

In early January 2010, FarmVille began offering farmers a chance to expand the storage capabilities of barns and tool sheds. Each farmer is given the opportunity to post a barn raising notice on their Facebook newsfeed, and if they enlist the help of ten friends within three days, they are rewarded with additional storage. This process is able to be repeated until a total of 14 storage spaces for a shed and 18 storage spaces for a barn are achieved. FarmVille also announced that chicken coops and dairy farm expansion is in the works for the future.

To expand storage, right click on the barn or shed and choose the "expand storage" option. Next, click the "expand" button and a Facebook posting link will appear. Post the notice and wait for friends to choose the "click here to help" link, or be proactive by alerting friends that help is needed, by sending out a Facebook email. Each FarmVille player that helps by clicking the link, will be awarded 100 coins, so there is incentive for them to help a friend.

If the post does not appear in the Facebook feed, notice that there are two choices in the storage area. One is "give up" and the other is "buy." Choose "give up" and then exit. Refresh the page and then try again, the option to expand should be available again.

If by chance a farmer does not get enough friends to allow for expansion of storage, the option is available to purchase it for ten dollars. If that is the case, choose "give up" and then choose "buy."

How to Add Additional Coops as Long as the Glitch Exists

Most of the following information is based on personal experience, but it has not occurred for everyone in the same way, and because this is an apparent glitch, be aware that Zynga will move quickly to fix their error.

Move a chicken coop to the top right corner of the farm. (A video explaining this process, stipulates that the coop must be in the top right corner, but personal experience found the coop multiplying while it was at the top of the farm and in the middle.) Expand a storage shed completely, using the information found above, until the three stars in the storage area are yellow (see photo below). Under the capacity, it should also read "fully upgraded." Now refresh the farm and take a look inside the storage area. Additional chicken coops should appear. If they do, go to the coop and choose "move" and drag the coop. Another coop should appear.

The video also states that two additional coops will appear for each full expansion, but that is not always the case.

If multiple chicken coops are the goal, jump on this glitch as quickly as possible, before Zynga takes away the opportunity. Make good use of the many coops by filling all but two of them with chickens. Leave the full coops to mature on their own. Place a "ready" chicken in one of the remaining two coops, and then fill it up. After collecting the eggs, place a second "ready" chick into the remaining coop and transfer chicks from the first coop to the second coop. This process removes one step in the former process of removing chicks, placing them on the ground and then placing them back in the coop again.

How To Cure Farmville Addiction

Anyone with a Facebook account knows that Farmville is the latest unlikely hit, allowing users to design and operate their own cartoon farm complete with too cute livestock and the unlikely banana tree that still produces a crop every three days regardless of the snow on the ground.

With millions of players, the charming escapist guilty pleasure can quickly become an addicting habit. If you find youself addicted to Farmville, consider the following ways to break the cycle.

5. Don’t Start Playing

Probably the most unlikely solution, it nevertheless is true that abstinence is the only certain way to avoid fullblown Farmville addiction. But those cartoon cows are just too cute, so we’ll move on to…

4. Set a Timer

You don’t need to spend hours a day organizing your livestock and rearranging your orchards or crops. At its heart, Farmville is a beguilingly simple game. Set an egg timer, or an old fashioned kitchen alarm, and tear yourself away when the bell rings. If that doesn’t work, you can always…

3. Ask Your Friends For Help

In this age of TV shows like Intervention, there’s likely a whole host of family and friends who will be eager to stage a fun and melodramatic effort to help your Farmville addiction.

2. Get Addicted to Something Else

Facebook offers a whole host of other classic time sucking games for escapism purposes. Try a walker on the darker side with the silly Mafia Wars, or search for pirate gold in Treasure Madness.

All that is fine, but I’m betting the most surefire way to cure Farmville Addiction is surprisingly simple:

1. Visit A Real Farm

Somehow, cartoon animals seem a bit less appealing when you’re reminded that their real life counterparts require a bit more work than the occasional brushing. The stench of cow manure alone could easily be enough to shatter the illusion!

New FarmVille Chicken Feeding Feature

Being a good neighbor in FarmVille definitely has its reward. Each time a neighbor profits from someone's generosity, both farmers win.

Early in January 2010, Zynga added an additional chicken feeding feature to FarmVille. Game players were greeted with a notice that read, NEW! FEED THE CHICKENS that are in your friends' coop and you may find MYSTERY EGGS! Happy well fed chickens are more likely to lay MYSTERY EGGS!

How to Feed FarmVille Chickens

A notifier - a bag of chicken feed, with the profile of a chicken - appears on the left top corner of each farm page. Each time a farmer visits a neighbor who has a chicken coop, the coop becomes highlighted and a notification appears that reminds about the necessary feeding. Click the notifier and then find the coop and feed the chickens.

Each feeding adds four coins to the farmers income and gives one experience point (XP point). After the feeding takes place, the farmer will either be rewarded with an egg or a message which says, Thanks for feeding your neighbor's chickens, No Mystery Eggs this time, but come back tomorrow and try again! If the chicken feed bag does not appear, double click the coop until it is highlighted and the notifier will show up.

Chicken Coop Incentive

Each player has an incentive to provide a chicken coop on their property to make it more attractive for others to visit. If they don't have a coop, there is no chance for reward. Once the chickens are fed and they become happy enough to lay an egg, a message appears that says, Feeding your neighbor's chickens made them so happy that they laid some Uncommon Brown [or white, black or gold] Mystery Eggs for you to give away.

Click the share button and the egg will post for the benefit of all neighboring farmers. The Facebook notification shares which farmer's chickens produced the egg and which farmer made them happy. Rumor has it that at least five friends are able to share the new found egg.

When harvesting one's own coop, there are also surprises. A full coop of golden chickens may not produce an egg, but when the chickens have been fed by neighbors, the reward increases, sometimes by many thousand coins.

FarmVille Mystery Egg Gifts

Most of the mystery eggs are producing different colored chickens (brown, black, gold, white), but other gifts include a scarecrow, fuel, carousel, animal float, a donkey and a Zen garden. Previous gifts include a pink Flamingo, garden gnome, tree swing, hot tub and a fire pit.

Fertilizing in FarmVille

With the addition of the chicken feeding feature, it appears that farmers are still able to fertilize crops on farms that have available fertilizer.

Zynga continues to spice up FarmVille and keep the interest of the players. This additional feature will create more excitement for the newer players and help increase interest in the game, not to mention the number of chickens walking around on the farms. To learn more cheats, tricks and tips, check out using bales of hay to trap the farmer, leveling up with lightening speed and producing a ready chick immediately. Enjoy!

FarmVille Fenced In Ribbon & Egg-celent Discovery Ribbon

Two new ribbons were also released in FarmVille. The Fenced In Ribbon which works by rewarding you for collecting fences and the Egg-celent Discovery Ribbon which rewards you for finding Mystery Eggs in your Chicken Coop.

Here are the requirements for both of these new ribbons.

The Fenced In Ribbon Requirements:

• Yellow Ribbon: Requires 5, gain of 25 XP and 500 Coins.
• White Ribbon: Requires 50, gain of 100 XP and 2,500 Coins.
• Red Ribbon: Requires 100, gain of 250 XP and 5,000 Coins.
• Blue Ribbon: Requires 250, gain of 1000 XP and 10,000 Coins.

The Egg-celent Discovery Ribbon Requirements:

• Yellow Ribbon: Requires 5, gain of 50 XP and 1,000 Coins.
• White Ribbon: Requires 25, gain of 100 XP and 2,500 Coins.
• Red Ribbon: Requires 50, gain of 250 XP and 5,000 Coins.
• Blue Ribbon: Requires 100, gain of 1000 XP and 10,000 Coins.

Getting The Most Farmville Ribbons

It’s pretty easy to earn a few ribbons in FarmVille. As you just go about your daily tasks, you’ll wind up accomplishing at least some of the early ribbon-worthy tasks. You may realise when you do earn one though, that the bonuses they pay out are fairly hefty. You can actually make a lot of cash and experience points quickly if you gather as many ribbons as you can. This is relatively easy to do, but you do have to put some effort into it if you want to get as much as you can out of your FarmVille experience.

You won’t be able to focus your energies on earning ribbons unless you know what you need to get them. You can uncover this information quick enough by clicking on the ribbon icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen. This will produce a list of all of the different Farmville ribbons and show you how you’re moving up in each category.

Pick One

You do have limited resources, particularly when you’re just starting out in FarmVille. Hence, it’s a good idea to concentrate on one type of ribbon at a time. Of course, it’s likely that whatever you do to earn those ribbons will help you to earn some other ones as well, but you can focus on those when you get to them.

Which to Pick

Before you decide which set of ribbons to go after first, you should take a few moments to learn what each ribbon category is about. This way, you’ll be able to get a good sense of which ribbons to go for first. For example, the Tree Hugger ribbons require that you harvest fruit from a particular number of unique trees, meaning that to get these, you’ll have to have a variety of different types of trees on your farm.

The Knock on Wood ribbons can be earned just by harvesting any type of tree a particular number of times. This means that if you concentrate on getting the Tree Hugger ribbons, you’ll automatically be on your way towards the Knock on Wood ribbons as well. The converse is not necessarily true because you could get the Knock on Wood ribbon for harvesting from only one kind of tree.

Get Some Neighbors

Neighbors help you get ribbons both directly and indirectly. There are ribbons for how many neighbours you have, how many times you help your neighbors out, and how many different gifts you are given. All of these categories are easier to advance in the more neighbors you have, so don’t hesitate to chase up your friends and get some ribbons that way too.