Chicken

Chickens (sometimes called Ducks ) are passive mobs found in Minecraft. Chickens supply feathers, raw chicken and chicken eggs, essential for arrows, food and cakes, respectively. Chickens are 0.875 blocks tall, 0.5 blocks wide and 0.8125 blocks long. A thrown egg has a 1 in 8 chance of hatching a chick, and a 1 in 256 chance of hatching 4 chicks at once.

Appearance
Chickens have white feathers and wings, yellow beaks, webbed feet and red wattles.

Behavior
Chickens appear to wander around aimlessly, but actually have decent path-finding ability. They make no attempt to stay out of water. Chickens are drawn to light in a dark environment, and will follow the player if the player is holding wheat (wheat seeds in 12w36a and beyond) (see Breeding).

When a chicken falls from a height, it quickly flaps its wings and falls slowly to the ground to prevent fall damage. They will also flap their wings in water to keep above the surface. Chickens will not climb up a ladder, but may be pushed up by the player.

While active a chicken will lay an egg every 5–10 minutes (6000 to 12000 ticks). In one experiment, it took 40 minutes for 9 chickens to lay 50 eggs (on average, 7.2 minutes/egg per chicken), and in another experiment 20 chickens lay 81 eggs in 30min (on average 7.4 minutes/egg per chicken). Baby Chickens will follow adults, regardless of whether the adults are their parents or not.

Breeding
Chickens can be hatched by throwing chicken eggs, allowing them to be easily bred. Chicks hatched from eggs thrown at a wall are more apt to die than chicks hatched from eggs thrown at a floor. Each egg has a 1/8th chance of hatching a chick and a 1/256th chance of hatching 4 chicks. This means that 5 stacks of eggs (80 total) will produce an average of 11 chicks.

Chicks move faster than adults. They take an average of 20 minutes to grow into adults. They do not lay eggs and will not drop resources if killed. Chicks will follow their parents or other adult chickens until they grow into an adult.

Adult chickens lay an egg every 7.5 minutes, so it takes an average of 55 minutes to produce a chick by collecting and throwing the eggs of a single chicken. Doing this continuously with a large number of chickens (several dozen) will double the population roughly every hour.

Chickens can also be bred by feeding them wheat. You need to feed 2 adult chickens to breed. The parent chickens will have a delay of five minutes until they can breed again. Newborn chicks will follow their parents (or a nearby adult if hatched from an egg).

It is possible to herd chickens along with any other animal if you simply walk by a chicken while holding wheat. The chicken will follow you wherever you go. You can do this to lead animals into fenced areas for easy breeding. This will still work when you're in a boat, if you're careful not to outrun them—this is an alternate means to lead a seed group long distances.

In an experiment breeding chickens with wheat every 5min and throwing all eggs 2 chickens became 5 chickens + 8 chicks after 30min and 18 wheat, and eventually 19 chickens + 18 chicks after 60min and 74 wheat.

Farming
The player can farm chickens quite easily by making chickens breed, and breaking their eggs, in a safe, enclosed area. Making a chicken colony is greatly beneficial to the player, for it gives an unlimited supply of feathers, raw chicken and chicken eggs. Unlike with other animals, a chicken farm can be started with a single chicken, but as noted above, it will take an average of five game days to produce a second adult chicken by breaking the eggs of the first. Once you have a pair, you can breed them with wheat every five minutes, hopefully getting your next pair of adults within 2 game days (30 minutes), with another three or four chicks growing. Assuming all eggs are collected (as loose items, they do vanish after the usual 5 minutes), a flock of chickens can add or replace a quarter of their adult number every game day. Breeding them with wheat can be much faster, potentially producing a chick and a half for each adult, each game day (but costing 2 wheat for each chick).

Fully automatic egg farms are also possible, since live chickens drop eggs periodically. The usual method is to place the chickens in a pool of water held up by signs so that their eggs will fall through the water into a collection area.

You can also build an automated hatchery by placing 3 dispensers around a block, trapping a Snow Golem on the block, placing a pressure plate under it, and loading the dispenser with eggs. The golem triggers the plate over and over again, causing the dispensers to fire the eggs, which may hatch.

Trivia

 * When a chicken is killed and has a boost from the hit or is thrown over a cliff by the hit, the "corpse" will also fall more slowly than normal, and the wings will still make a flapping animation.
 * When a chicken is riding a minecart, it is impossible to attack the chicken rather than the cart as it is completely within the hitbox of the cart.
 * Chickens are the only Overworld mob (without the use of hacks/inventory editors) that can be spawned in the Nether in Survival mode, by hatching them from throwing chicken eggs.
 * Chickens are sometimes mistaken for ducks due to their wide beaks and ability to swim.
 * Probably inspired by this, 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, there is a small chance that the Chicken will spawn on the other side of the panes, also with iron bars.
 * Despite being an animal that does not give live birth, chickens in-game are able to give live birth.
 * Chicks can be lured by wheat. As of 12w36a, seeds are used instead of wheat.
 * There is no texture for the underside of a chicken's head, allowing you to see through it and see the inside.
 * Ocelots will attack chickens.
 * Studies show that chickens are the quickest at getting out of traps or structures when there is an opening, also with iron bars.
 * Chickens may lay eggs while dying.
 * Chickens seem to be drawn to cauldrons, though this is not proven programming.