Chicken

Health points	4
Behavior	Passive
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Adult: Height: 0.7 Blocks Width: 0.4 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.35 Blocks Width: 0.2 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Adult: Height: 0.8 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.4 Blocks Width: 0.3 Blocks
Spawn	Solid surfaced blocks with a minimum of two block spaces above them A ¹⁄₈ chance from a thrown egg
Items usable on	Wheat Seeds Beetroot Seeds Melon Seeds Pumpkin Seeds Lead

Chickens are common passive mobs found in most grassy biomes, and are the main source of chicken, feathers and eggs.

Spawning[edit]

Chickens spawn naturally in the overworld in groups of four on grass blocks^[a] with 2 blocks of free space above it at a light level of 9 or more.

Chickens are more common in jungle hills, jungle edges and modified jungle edges.‌^{[JE only]}

After the world generation, they spawn individually.

5% of chickens spawn as chicks.

They require a light level of 7 or more to spawn and are found in groups of two to four.‌^{[BE only]}

Chicken Jockey[edit]

Java Edition[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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 are able to swim, in a derpy fashion, visibly flapping their wings and staying on the water surface. While swimming, chickens and chicks need only one block of air above their heads.

Breeding[edit]

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 incredibly small. They can pass through openings even smaller than a full block, though not willingly. When one is riding a minecart, it is impossible to hit as it is completely inside the minecart's hitbox.

Eggs[edit]

Chickens are the only Overworld mob that can breed without a separate item. Chickens lay eggs at random, and an egg and 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 panes.

Sounds[edit]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	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[edit]

ID[edit]

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Chicken	`chicken`	`entity.minecraft.chicken`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Chicken	`chicken`	`10`	`entity.chicken.name`

Entity data[edit]

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 spawn eggs. Baby zombies can still control a ridden chicken even if this is set false.

Advancements[edit]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	Breed a pair of any of these 21 mobs: Axolotl Bee Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breed-able together. Other breed-able mobs, if any, can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	`husbandry/breed_an_animal`
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed a pair of each of these 21 mobs: Axolotl Bee Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breed-able together. Other breed-able mobs, if any, can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	`husbandry/bred_all_animals`

History[edit]

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.14					Added chickens.
v1.0.14					Chickens fall slower 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.
1.8		Pre-release			Chickens now run away when attacked.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2			Chickens can now be bred with 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.
1.2.1		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.
1.4.2		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 with melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and beetroot seeds, in addition to regular seeds.
1.9		15w43a			Chickens can now drop several raw/cooked chicken, if killed with a Looting-enchanted weapon.
1.10		16w20a			Chickens no longer spawn in snowy tundras.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from `Chicken` to `chicken`.
1.11		16w32a			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.
v0.12.1		build 1			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.
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.
TU7					Chicken can now be bred with 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[edit]

Issues relating to "Chicken" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[edit]

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]