Chicken

Chickens are passive mobs that first appeared in Alpha mode. The main purpose of chickens is to supply feathers and eggs, essential for arrows and cakes respectively. Chickens are 0.875 blocks tall, 0.5 blocks wide and 0.8125 blocks long.

Behavior
Chickens wander around aimlessly. They will make no attempt to stay out of water, and a common sight is several chickens bouncing up and down in the water. If you stand near a chicken, it will turn its head towards you for a few seconds, then resume its wandering. They seem to be drawn to caves and since the Beta update they seem to be the most common mob. Chickens often spawn alone, but can spawn in groups of 1-3. Like other passive mobs, they are attracted to lights, and can somtimes be seen jumping up and down on a Torch or other light source. Like most other mobs, they also cannot jump over fences.

Chickens can also lay eggs which you can throw at enemies or used as an ingredient in cakes. Since the Beta 1.0 update on December 20, Chickens have a 1/8 chance of being spawned from a thrown Egg.

Information & History

 * Chickens are the second smallest mob (the first being small slimes) being able to fit through 1x1 gaps.
 * They take no fall damage, and when they fall they make a flapping animation and fall slower than normal.
 * There is an urban myth that states that chickens can lead players to valuable ores, though there is nothing in the source code that would give this behaviour.

Appearance
Chickens are often mistaken for ducks due to their wide beaks and ability to swim.

Egg Farming
Chickens can't sink in water, while the eggs will sink down. Using this knowledge, it is possible to build an egg farm using the following layout (shown from the side):

b=block

s=space

w=water

bsb

bwb

bwb

bwwwww

Using a stream of water at the bottom which will carry dropped eggs away, the harvest can be automated.

It is also possible to link more of these farms together for more eggs.

Using a dispenser filled with eggs, the chicken population can periodically be increased.

Drops
Alpha and Beta
 * 0-2 feathers
 * Eggs (Spawn at random between 5-10 minutes for every chicken, the timer is set when they spawn and when they lay an egg)