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. They also cannot jump over fences, so this is a good way of enclosing them (though the picture below was a cause of pure luck, where 4 were caught, one was killed and one escaped).

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.

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

Drops
Alpha and Beta
 * 0-2 feathers
 * Eggs (Usually spawned after 3-5 minutes with a chicken that has NOT despawned yet)