| Health points |
4 |
|---|---|
| Behavior |
Passive |
| Classification | |
| Hitbox size |
In Java Edition: |
| Spawn |
Solid surfaced blocks with a minimum of two block spaces above them |
| Usable items |
A chicken is a common passive mob found in most grassy biomes. Chickens are the main source of chicken, feathers, and eggs.
Contents
Spawning[]
Chickens spawn naturally in the Overworld in groups of 4 on grass blocks, with 2 blocks of free space above it at a light level of 9 or more. They do not spawn in desert, snowy plains, ice spikes, snowy slopes, meadows, wooded badlands, jagged peaks, frozen peaks and stony peaks. In Java Edition, chickens are more common in sparse jungles.
After the world generation, chickens spawn individually.
5% of chickens spawn as chicks.
In Bedrock Edition, chickens require a light level of 7 or more to spawn, and are found in groups of 2 to 4.
Chicken Jockey[]
Java Edition[]
All baby zombie variants and baby zombified piglins have a 5% chance to spawn riding a chicken, forming a chicken jockey. Because a baby zombie occurs from 5% of zombie spawns, the chicken jockey spawns consist of 0.25% of all zombie spawns in a chicken-free environment; if chickens are present, the chance increases to 0.4875%. A chicken jockey can also be spawned by using the following command:
/summon minecraft:chicken ~ ~ ~ {isChickenJockey:1b,Passengers:[{id:"minecraft:zombie",IsBaby:1b}]}
Chicken jockeys may spawn with items equipped. Baby zombified piglin versions of the chicken jockey always wield a golden sword. Harming or killing the chicken does not cause the zombified piglin to attack.
Bedrock Edition[]
Baby zombie jockeys no longer spawn riding chickens, but check for nearby adult chickens to mount prior to attacking a player, wandering trader, adult villager, snow golem, or iron golem.
Drops[]
When an adult chicken is killed, it drops:
- 0–2 feathers. The maximum is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0–5 with Looting III.
- 1 raw chicken (1 cooked chicken if killed while on fire). The maximum is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 1–4 with Looting III.
- 1–3 when killed by a player or tamed wolf; (10 if it was part of a chicken jockey).
Chickens that were not part of chicken jockeys lay 1egg every 5 to 10 minutes.
When they breed, they drop 1–7.
Killing a baby chicken yields no items or experience.
Behavior[]
Chickens are active, wandering aimlessly, chicks also following adults. When falling, they flap their wings and fall slowly, thus they are immune to fall damage. However, they avoid falling off cliffs. When harmed, they flee around. Chickens uniquely attempt to jump up to climb stairs instead of climbing them normally.[1] They are attacked by ocelots, untamed cats,[JE only] and foxes. Chickens follow players holding various seeds within 6 blocks.
While in a loaded chunk, a chicken lays an egg every 5–10 minutes (6000–12000 ticks), unless it is, or was, a part of a chicken jockey. If the player is close enough to a chicken when it lays an egg, a pop sound is heard.
Chickens can swim, visibly flapping their wings and staying on the water surface. While swimming, a chicken needs only one block of air above its head. If a chicken is trapped underwater for more than 15 seconds, it drowns and dies.
Breeding[]
A baby chicken with its parents.
If two adult chickens are fed wheat seeds, beetroot seeds, melon seeds or pumpkin seeds, a baby spawns. They cannot breed for 5 minutes afterward.
Chicks take 20 minutes to grow up, but the growth time can be accelerated by 10% each time it is fed seeds.
Chicks are smaller than a half-block and can unwillingly pass through openings smaller than a full block, but do not walk through half-block-stall spaces. A chick riding a minecart cannot be hit because it is completely inside the minecart's hitbox. *A baby chicken's hitbox is smaller than a half-block, but they won't walk through half-block tall spaces.
Eggs[]
Chickens are the only Overworld mob that can breed without a separate item. Chickens lay eggs at random, and an egg thrown at the ground has a 1⁄8 chance of spawning a chick. If a chick spawns from a thrown egg, there is a further 1⁄32 chance (overall 1⁄256 per egg) to spawn 3 extra chicks. It is theoretically possible for a stack of 16 eggs to yield 64 chickens, if all spawn chances succeed for all eggs.
If the player throws an egg at a glass pane, the chick can spawn on the far side of the pane.
Sounds[]
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken clucks | Friendly Creatures | Plays while the chicken is idling. | entity.chicken.ambient | subtitles.entity.chicken.ambient | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Chicken dies | Friendly Creatures | Plays when the chicken dies. | entity.chicken.death | subtitles.entity.chicken.death | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Chicken plops | Friendly Creatures | Plays when the chicken lays an egg. | entity.chicken.egg | subtitles.entity.chicken.egg | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Chicken hurts | Friendly Creatures | Plays when the chicken is damaged. | entity.chicken.hurt | subtitles.entity.chicken.hurt | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Friendly Creatures | Plays while the chicken is walking. | entity.chicken.step | subtitles.block.generic.footsteps | ? | ? | 16 |
Data values[]
ID[]
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | chicken | entity.minecraft.chicken |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | chicken | 10 | entity.chicken.name |
Entity data[]
Chickens have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.
- Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can breed
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- EggLayTime: Number of ticks until the chicken lays its egg. Laying occurs at 0 and this timer gets reset to a new random value between 6000 and 12000.
- IsChickenJockey: 1 or 0 (true/false) - Whether or not the chicken is a jockey for a baby zombie. If true, the chicken can naturally despawn, drops 10 experience upon death instead of 1-3 and cannot lay eggs. Baby zombies can still control a ridden chicken even if this is set false.
Advancements[]
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed two animals together | Husbandry | Breed a pair of any of these 22 mobs:
| husbandry/breed_an_animal
|
 | Two by Two | Breed all the animals! | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed a pair of each of these 21 (22[upcoming: JE 1.19]) mobs:
| husbandry/bred_all_animals
|
History[]
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.14 |  Added chickens. | ||||
| Chickens fall more slowly than other mobs and have a flapping animation, but still take fall damage on landing. | |||||
| v1.0.17 | Chickens are now immune to fall damage. | ||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.0 | Eggs are now throwable, with a chance to spawn a chicken on impact. | ||||
| 1.8 | Pre-release | Chickens now drop raw chicken. Before this, chickens dropped only feathers upon death. | |||
| Chickens now run away when attacked. | |||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Chickens can now be bred using wheat. | |||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 |  Added baby chickens. | ||||
| RC1 | Thrown eggs can now hatch baby chickens. | ||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w04a | Ocelots now attack chickens. | |||
| 12w07a | Chickens now have new AI to avoid hazards. | ||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w36a | Chickens now use wheat seeds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds and nether wart instead of wheat to breed. | |||
| 12w38a | Added new step sounds for chickens. | ||||
| 1.7.4 | 13w49a | Added chicken jockeys — baby zombies spawned riding chickens. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Baby chicken growth can now be accelerated using seeds. | |||
| 14w33c | Baby chickens can now swim. | ||||
| 14w34d | Chickens can no longer be bred using melon seeds, pumpkin seeds or nether wart. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Chickens can now be led and bred using melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and beetroot seeds, in addition to regular seeds. | |||
| 15w43a | Chickens can now drop several raw/cooked chicken, if killed with a Looting-enchanted weapon. | ||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Chickens no longer spawn in ice plains. | |||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID has been changed from Chicken to chicken.
| |||
A texture has been added under the chicken's head, which changes the texture from  to  .[2] | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | The textures of chickens and baby chickens have been changed. | |||
| 1.15 | 19w37a | 5% of chickens now spawn as babies. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.3.0 | Added chickens. | ||||
| v0.6.0 | Added baby chickens. | ||||
| v0.7.0 | Chickens now lay eggs and have a 1 in 8 chance to spawn a baby chicken and a 1 in 254 chance for an egg to hatch 4 chickens. | ||||
| v0.8.0 | build 2 | Baby chickens can now be spawned by throwing eggs. | |||
| Chickens can now breed. | |||||
| Chickens now follow the player if the player holds pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, beetroot seeds or wheat seeds. | |||||
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Chickens now spawn in small groups. | |||
| v0.10.0 | build 4 | Chickens no longer have a black texture on their chin due to the texture being missing, which changes the texture from  to . | |||
| v0.11.0 | build 1 | Added chicken jockeys — baby zombies spawn riding chickens. | |||
| v0.12.1 | build 1 | Added ocelots, which attack chickens. | |||
| Chickens can now drop several raw/cooked chicken, if killed with a Looting-enchanted weapon. | |||||
| v0.14.0 | build 1 | Baby zombie jockeys no longer spawn riding chickens, but check for nearby adult chickens to mount prior to attacking a player, villager or golem. | |||
| v0.15.0 | build 1 | Baby husks can now mount adult chickens. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | The textures of chickens and baby chickens have been changed. | |||
| 1.13.0 | beta 1.13.0.1 | Added foxes, which attack chickens. | |||
| 1.18.30 | beta 1.18.20.27 | Chickens no longer spawn in snowy taigas. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added chickens. |
| TU5 | Chickens now run away when attacked. | ||||
| TU7 | Added baby chickens.
| ||||
| Chicken can now be bred using seeds. | |||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Using a chicken spawn egg, baby chickens can now be spawned by using  on an adult chicken. | |||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Baby chicken growth can now be accelerated using seeds. | |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added chickens. | ||||
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Chicken" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- When a chicken is killed off a ledge, the corpse also falls more slowly than normal, and the wings continue flapping.
- Chickens are able to "hide" within hoppers due to their small size, which protects them from dangers like lava on top of the hopper.
- A few weeks before the end of Java Edition Beta, Notch tweeted that he changed the chickens to ducks,[3] causing a turmoil on Twitter. A few days later, Jeb, still getting feedback on the idea, stated that it was just a joke.[4]
- The changelog for Pocket Edition v0.3.0 alpha referred to chickens as ducks.[5]
- Notch later referred to chickens in a blog post as "the chicken/duck/whatevers".[6]
Gallery[]
A chicken.
A dying chicken and its item drops when killed.
A chicken farm containing over 100 chickens.
A chicken farm.
Around 240 adult chickens in a circle.
A chicken next to an egg.
A chicken next to a burning baby zombie.
A chicken looking at the player.
A chicken riding a minecart.
A chicken compared to a tiny slime.
A chicken on fire.
A chicken swimming.
A group of chickens following a player.
A chicken being attacked by an ocelot.
A chicken flapping its wings while falling from a high place.
A chicken compared to a lamb (baby sheep).
The chicken's texture.
Animation of a chicken floating, flying, or sitting.
Other media[]
An artwork of a chicken by Mojang.
Ditto.
A Chicken in promotional artwork for the Horse Update.
A Chicken in promotional artwork for the first Caves & Cliffs update.
Lego Minecraft Chicken.
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ MC-95818
- ↑ MC-2153
- ↑ "Also, the chicken is now a duck." – @notch on Twitter, October 28, 2011
- ↑ "@NationalStupid1 It was a joke" – @jeb_ on Twitter, November 2, 2011
- ↑ http://www.mojang.com/2012/04/minecraft-pocket-edition-now-with-crafting/
- ↑ wordofnotch:28188312756
