Chickens are common egg-laying passive mobs.
Spawning
Natural generation
Chickens naturally generate in groups of up to 4 on grass blocks with 2 blocks of free space above it at light level of 9 or more.
They spawn more frequently in jungles than in other biomes.
5% of naturally generated chickens will be babies. [Bedrock Edition only]
Baby chicken
Chickens can be bred to produce chicks.
Thrown eggs have a 1⁄8 chance to spawn a baby chicken. If successful, there is a 1⁄32 chance to spawn four baby chickens instead. If the egg was thrown at a wall at a certain angle, the chicken may spawn in the wall, suffocating the chicken.
Baby chickens will grow up in 20 minutes, although the growth can be accelerated by seeds; each use of seeds reduces the remaining time by 10%. Baby chickens do not lay eggs. Due to their small size, they can pass through openings even smaller than a full block, though not willingly.
When swimming, they need only one block of air above their heads.
Chicken jockey
All baby zombie variants and baby zombie pigmen have a 5% chance to spawn riding a chicken, forming a chicken jockey. Since a baby zombie only occurs from 5% of zombie spawns, this means that the chicken jockey spawns makes up only 0.25% of all zombie spawns.
In a chicken-free environment, this gives each spawned zombie a 0.25% chance of becoming a chicken jockey; if chickens are present, the chance increases to 0.4875%. A chicken jockey can also be spawned by the command /summon chicken ~ ~ ~ {Passengers:[{id:zombie,IsBaby:1}]}. [Java Edition only]
Chicken jockeys may spawn with items equipped. Baby zombie pigmen versions of the chicken jockey will always have their golden sword equipped. Provoking the zombie pigman chicken jockey will cause it to attack, like a normal zombie pigman. Killing the chicken will not cause the zombie pigman to attack.
Drops
Adult chickens drop from 0 to 2 feathers, and 1 raw chicken. If a chicken dies while on fire, it drops cooked chicken instead of raw chicken.
The amount of raw chicken (or cooked chicken) dropped is affected by the Looting enchantment.
- Looting I : 1–2 raw chicken, 0–2 feathers
- Looting II : 1–3 raw chicken, 1–3 feathers
- Looting III : 1–4 raw chicken, 1–4 feathers
Chickens drop 1–3 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Like other baby animals, killing a baby chicken yields no items, nor experience.
Behavior
Chickens appear to wander around aimlessly. When falling they will flap their wings quickly and fall slowly, making them immune to fall damage. Despite this, they will still avoid falling off high cliffs.
While in a loaded chunk, a chicken will lay one egg every 5 to 10 minutes (6000 to 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 popping sound can be heard. Chicken corpses can also lay eggs.[1]
They share some behaviors with other "farm animals":
- They are drawn to light when in a dark environment.
- When struck, they run around quickly and aimlessly.
- They can swim, visibly flapping their wings as they stay on the surface.
- They follow players that are holding wheat seeds, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, and beetroot seeds, and are also able to breed with those items.
Chickens are attacked by wild ocelots.
Chickens need two blocks of air above their heads or else they will take damage when they float up and will eventually die.
Unlike most mobs, chickens will attempt to jump up stairs instead of climbing them normally.[2]
Breeding
A baby chicken with its parents.
If two chickens are fed wheat seeds, beetroot seeds, melon seeds, or pumpkin seeds (or nether wart[Legacy Console Edition only]), they will mate and produce a chick. After breeding, the chickens will be unable to breed again for 5 minutes.
Baby chickens normally take 20 minutes to grow up, but the growth time can be accelerated by 10% each time it is fed seeds.
Data values
Chickens have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is chicken.
- 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 25 mobs:
| husbandry/breed_an_animal
|
![]() | Two by Two | Breed all the animals! | The Parrots and the Bats | Breed a pair of each of these 24 mobs:
| husbandry/bred_all_animals
|
Video
- Note: This video is outdated, Chickens are bred from seeds instead of wheat. Also, the video was made before other flying mobs were implemented, as it states the chicken is the only mob in the Overworld that can fly.
Chicken/video
History
| alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.14 | Added chickens. | ||||
| v1.0.17 | Chickens are now immune to fall damage, and fall slower than other mobs. | ||||
| Chickens no longer drop leather when killed by fall damage.[verify] | |||||
| beta | |||||
| 1.0 | Chickens can be spawned by throwing eggs. | ||||
| 1.8 | ? | Chickens now drop raw chicken. Before this, chickens dropped only feathers upon death. | |||
| Chickens will run away when attacked. | |||||
| release | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Chickens can be bred with wheat. | |||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 | Baby chickens were added. | ||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w04a | Ocelots attack chickens. | |||
| 12w07a | Chickens have new AI. | ||||
| 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. | ||||
| 1.7.4 | 13w49a | Added chicken jockeys — baby zombies spawned riding chickens. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Baby chicken growth can be accelerated using seeds. | |||
| 14w34d | Chickens can no longer be bred using melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, or nether wart. | ||||
| ? | Baby chickens can now swim. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Chickens can now be led and bred with melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and beetroot seeds, in addition to regular seeds. | |||
| 15w43a | Chickens can now drop several raw/cooked chickens if killed with a Looting-enchanted weapon. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | Changed entity ID from Chicken to chicken.
| |||
| Added texture for under chicken's head.[3] | |||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.3.0 | Added chickens. | ||||
| 0.6.0 | Baby chickens were added. | ||||
| 0.7.0 | Chickens now lay eggs and have a 1 in 8 to spawn a baby chicken and a 1 in 254 chance an egg will hatch 4 chickens. | ||||
| 0.8.0 | ? | Chickens follow the player if the player holds pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, beetroot seeds, or wheat seeds. | |||
| Thrown eggs can now spawn baby chickens. | |||||
| 0.10.0 | ? | Chickens no longer have a black texture on their chin. | |||
| 0.11.0 | ? | Added chicken jockeys — baby zombies spawned riding chickens. | |||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Baby zombie jockeys no longer spawn riding chickens, but will check for nearby adult chickens to mount prior to attacking the player. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Added chickens. | |
| TU5 | Chicken will run away when attacked. | ||||
| TU7 | Added baby chickens. | ||||
| Chicken can now be bred with seeds. | |||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Using a chicken spawn egg, baby chickens can now be spawned by using | |||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Baby chicken growth can be accelerated using seeds. | |
Issues
Issues relating to "Chicken" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- When a chicken is riding a minecart, it is impossible to attack the chicken rather than the cart as it is completely inside the shape of the cart.
- Cooked chicken can easily be obtained by letting chickens fall onto a block of burning netherrack from which they can run off.
- When a chicken is killed off a ledge, the corpse also falls more slowly than normal, and the wings still make a flapping animation.
- Chickens are able to "hide" within hoppers due to their small size, protecting them from lava or water that might be directly on top of the hopper.
- Chickens are the only Overworld mob (without the use of hacks/inventory editors) that can be bred in the Nether, by building a suitable area and throwing eggs inside of it.
- A few weeks before the end of Beta, Notch tweeted that he changed the chickens to ducks,[4] causing a turmoil on Twitter. A few days later, Jeb, still getting feedback on the idea, stated that it was just a joke.[5]
- While you are loading/creating/exiting a world on Legacy Console Edition, the message that appears can say "Is it a Chicken, or a duck?". Also, the summary for the mobs avatars at the end says "... and a chicken... Or is it a duck?".
- The changelog for Pocket Edition 0.3.0 referred to chickens as ducks.[6]
- If you throw eggs at glass panes, there is a small chance that the baby chicken will spawn on the other side of the panes.
- Despite being an animal that does not give live birth, chickens are able to live birth.
- You can start "chicken tube" farms in which you contain vast numbers of chickens in a small space to get their eggs to make more chickens or to kill for food, completely bypassing the point of breeding and wheat farming.
Gallery
Other media
See also
References
- ↑ MC-4773
- ↑ MC-95818
- ↑ MC-2153
- ↑ "Also, the chicken is now a duck." – @notch (Markus Persson) on X, October 28, 2011
- ↑ "@NationalStupid1 It was a joke" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X, November 2, 2011
- ↑ http://www.mojang.com/2012/04/minecraft-pocket-edition-now-with-crafting/




















