Chicken

Chickens (sometimes called Ducks ) are passive mobs that supply feathers, raw chicken and chicken eggs. Chickens are 0.875 blocks tall, 0.5 blocks wide and 0.8125 blocks long. They have white feathers and wings, yellow beaks, and red wattles.

Appearance
Chickens have white feathers and wings, yellow beaks, yellow feet and red wattles. Their texture is somewhat checkered.

Behavior

 * While in a loaded chunk, a chicken lays one egg approximately every 7.5 minutes (6000 to 12000 ticks).
 * They follow the player if they are holding wheat seeds.
 * When a chicken falls from a ledge, it quickly flaps its wings and falls slowly to the ground to prevent fall damage.
 * Chickens appear to wander around aimlessly, not even attempting to stay out of water.
 * They are drawn to light in a dark environment.
 * They flap their wings in water to keep above the surface.
 * If burned to death they will drop cooked chicken. (With i.e. Flint and steel or Lava.)

Breeding
There are two ways to breed chickens; hatching eggs or feeding adult chickens seeds (wheat, melon, pumpkin or Nether Wart). Both can be done simultaneously, increasing their spawn rate.

Hatching Eggs: Chickens can be hatched by throwing chicken eggs on the ground. Each egg has a 1/8th chance of hatching a chick, including a 1/256th chance of hatching 4 chicks. A full stack of 16 eggs has an 88% chance of producing at least one chick.

Feeding Chickens: Feeding two fully grown chickens seeds will spawn a chick, which grows into an adult after approximately 20 minutes. Adult chickens can be bred about every 5 minutes.

Chicks
Successfully breeding two chickens or breaking enough chicken eggs spawns a chick.


 * Chicks move faster than adults.
 * They take about 20 minutes to fully mature.
 * As a chick, they do not lay eggs and do not drop resources/experience if killed, like any other baby mob.
 * Chicks follow their parents or other adult chickens until they grow into an adult.

Farming
Farming chickens is beneficial, as it provides a renewable source of chicken eggs, raw/cooked chicken, feathers and XP. It is recommended to keep chickens in an enclosed/fenced area so they do not wander off.

Automatic egg farms can be created by placing chickens in a pool of water suspended by signs. When the chickens lay eggs, they fall through the water into a collection area.

Large chicken farms can generate quite a bit of noise; it may be desirable to build larger farms at least sixteen blocks away from frequently used areas.

Also, using the Hopper in the 1.5 snapshots, one can make the entire floor of an egg farm into an auto-collector. As soon as a Chicken lays an egg, it is picked up bu the hoppers and dropped into a lower chest. This takes away the need to get the eggs before they despawn

Trivia

 * When a chicken is killed off a ledge, the "corpse" also falls more slowly than normal, and the wings still make a flapping animation, this also happens in Pocket Edition.
 * Notch tweeted that he changed the chickens to ducks a few weeks before the end of Beta, causing a turmoil on Twitter. A few days later, Jeb, still getting feedback on the idea, stated that it was just a joke.
 * If you throw chicken eggs at glass panes or iron bars, there is a small chance that the chick spawns on the opposite side.
 * Despite being an animal that does not give live birth, chickens in-game are able to give live birth.
 * Chickens are the only animals that you can create a farm with while having only one chicken. The eggs it drops can then be used to create into another chicken, allowing you to breed them.
 * There is no texture for the underside of a chicken's head, allowing you to see through it and see the inside.
 * Ocelots attack chickens.
 * Chickens can lay eggs while being killed, although the chances of this are very low.