To move an animal to a different building in Fields of Mistria, open your Journal, go to the Animals tab, select the animal and move it to another barn or coop that has a free space. If you have no other building, Hayden’s daycare at Sweetwater Farm holds animals for free for as long as you like. The one hard rule: an animal that is expecting a baby cannot be moved at all until the baby is born. Below we cover the menu method, the daycare, carrying small animals by hand, and getting your animals in and out of their buildings each day.
This reflects the 1.0 release of Fields of Mistria on PC. Moving animals has worked this way since Early Access, and the v1.0.3 patch in August 2026 fixed a crash that could hit if you were carrying an animal while moving another one through the menu.
Moving Animals Between Buildings
This is the method for cows, sheep, horses and alpacas, and the quickest one for coop animals too.
- Open the Journal with Esc (the Menu button on a controller) and switch to the Animals tab.
- Select the animal you want to move to open its page.
- Choose the building to move it to. Barn animals can only go to barns and coop animals only to coops.
Two conditions apply: the destination needs enough free space, and the animal must not be pregnant. Barns and coops hold four animals at small size, eight at medium and twelve at large, so upgrading to a bigger building is often the real fix when a move is refused.
Using Hayden’s Daycare
Hayden’s Shop sits at Sweetwater Farm, the ranch just west of your farm. Besides selling animals and supplies, Hayden runs a daycare:
- It is free. There is no charge to drop animals off or collect them.
- There is no time limit. Animals can stay indefinitely.
- It is how you empty a building. Put animals in daycare, remove or rebuild the building, then, as players describe it, assign them to the new one from the daycare menu.
- Pregnant animals are refused, like every other kind of move.
Daycare is the backbone of relocating a whole building, which our guide on how to move your barn walks through step by step.
Why an Animal Will Not Move
If one animal refuses to budge, it is almost always expecting. NPC Studio’s patch notes are explicit that animals expecting offspring cannot be sold, moved to a different farm building or placed in the daycare, and this applies to both parents of the pairing. The baby arrives four days after the parents are given their Heart Shaped Treats, and after that the parents are free again. If you are planning a big rearrangement, do it before you start the process in our guide on how to breed animals.
Carrying Coop Animals by Hand
Chickens, ducks, rabbits and capybaras are small enough to pick up and carry. You can walk them in and out of the coop this way, and even take them around town and into other buildings. The one thing you cannot do while carrying an animal is jump into water.
Carrying is handy for moving a single chicken a short distance or bringing a favorite along somewhere, but for anything bigger than one animal, the Animals tab is faster.
Calling Animals In and Out Each Day
Day to day, moving animals mostly means getting them outside and back in again.
- Use the bell. Each barn and coop has a bell outside that calls all of that building’s animals out or in at once.
- Upgrade to the Big Bell. The Ranching perk The Bell Tolls unlocks the Big Bell, which calls in or out every animal on the farm at the same time.
- Get them in before night. Animals must be inside at the end of the day or they produce nothing the next morning, and one left outside overnight loses 5 heart points.
- Watch the weather. Going outside in clear weather earns heart points, while rain, snow, storms or blizzards cost them instead.
- Leave room at the door. Player reports say animals need a generous clear area to walk out of a building, so keep the ground in front of each door free of furniture and crops, which you can rearrange with our guide on how to move furniture.
Grazing animals also eat grass around the farm, and they will eat unharvested crops if they go out unfed, so harvest first on days you let them roam.
Selling Animals
The last kind of move is out of your farm entirely. Adult animals that are not pregnant can be sold from the main menu at Hayden’s Shop. Since an Early Access update, that menu groups animals by the building they live in, and the price rises with an animal’s hearts and the rarity of its color.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you move animals to another barn in Fields of Mistria? Open the Journal, go to the Animals tab, select the animal and choose the barn to move it to. The new barn needs a free space.
Why can’t I move my animal? Either the destination building is full or the animal is expecting a baby. Expecting animals cannot be moved, sold or put in daycare until the birth, four days after breeding.
Does Hayden’s daycare cost money? No. It is free and has no time limit.
Can you carry animals in Fields of Mistria? Coop animals, yes: chickens, ducks, rabbits and capybaras can be picked up and carried. Barn animals are moved through the Animals tab instead.
How do you get all your animals inside at once? Ring the bell outside the barn or coop. The Big Bell from The Bell Tolls perk calls every animal on the farm.