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This article is about the live animal. For its raw meat, see Raw Chicken. For its cooked meat, see Cooked Chicken.

Chickens (sometimes called Ducks[1]) are passive mobs that supply feathers, raw chicken and Chicken Eggs. Chickens are 0.875 blocks tall, 0.5 blocks wide and 0.8125 blocks long. They have white feathers and wings, yellow beaks, and red wattles.

Appearance

Chickens have white feathers and wings, yellow beaks, webbed feet and red wattles. Their texture is somewhat checkered.

Behavior

  • While in a loaded chunk, a chicken lays one egg approximately every 7.5 minutes (6000 to 12000 ticks).
  • They follow the player if they are holding wheat seeds. (Before 1.4, wheat held this role.)
  • When a chicken falls from a ledge, it quickly flaps its wings and falls slowly to the ground to prevent fall damage.
  • Chickens appear to wander around aimlessly, not even attempting to stay out of water.
  • They are drawn to light in a dark environment.
  • They flap their wings in water to keep above the surface.

Sex

Main article: Breeding

There are two ways to breed chickens; hatching eggs or feeding adult chickens seeds (wheat, melon, pumpkin or Nether Wart). Both can be done simultaneously, increasing their spawn rate.

Hatching Eggs: Chickens can be hatched by throwing Chicken Eggs on the ground. Each egg has a 1/8th chance of hatching a chick, including a 1/256th chance of hatching 4 chicks. A full stack of 16 eggs has a 88% chance of producing at least one chick.

Breeding Chickens: Giving two fully grown Chickens some privacy will spawn a chick, which grows into an adult after approximately 15 minutes. Adult chickens can be bred about every 5 minutes.

Chicks

Successfully breeding two chickens or breaking enough Chicken Eggs spawns a chick.

  • Chicks move faster than adults.
  • They take an average of 15 minutes to fully mature.
  • As a chick, they do not lay eggs and do not drop resources/experience if killed, like any other baby mob.
  • Chicks follow their parents or other adult chickens until they grow into an adult.

Farming

Farming chickens is beneficial, as it provides a renewable source of Chicken Eggs, Raw/Cooked Chicken, and Feathers. It is recommended to keep chickens in an enclosed/fenced area so they do not wander off.

Automatic egg farms can be created by placing chickens in a pool of water suspended by Signs. When the chickens lay eggs, they fall through the water into a collection area.

Large Chicken farms can generate quite a bit of noise; it may be desirable to build larger farms at least sixteen blocks away from frequently used areas.

History

a
[[a 1.0.14

(Seecret Friday 7)|1.0.14

(Seecret Friday 7)]]
Added chickens.
b
1.8Raw chicken is introduced with the hunger system. Before this, chickens dropped only feathers at death.
r
12w07aChickens have new AI system.
u
12w36aChickens now use wheat seeds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds and Nether Warts instead of wheat to breed.
12w38aAdded new step sounds.

Video

Chicken/video


Trivia

  • When a chicken is killed off a ledge, the "corpse" also falls more slowly than normal, and the wings 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.
  • Notch tweeted that he changed the chickens to ducks a few weeks before the end of Beta,[2] causing a turmoil on Twitter. A few days later, Jeb, still getting feedback on the idea, stated that it was just a joke.[3]
  • If you throw chicken eggs at Glass Panes or Iron Bars, there is a small chance that the Chick spawns on the opposite side.
  • Despite being an animal that does not give live birth, chickens in-game are able to give live birth.
  • Chickens are the only animals that you can create a farm with while having only one chicken. The eggs it drops can then be used to create into another chicken, allowing you the breed them.
  • There is no texture for the underside of a chicken's head, allowing you to see through it and see the inside.
  • Ocelots attack chickens.

Texture

Default Chicken Texture

Gallery

See also

Notes


References

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