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| — Jens Bergensten[1] |
Three chicken jockeys in a superflat world.
A chicken jockey[2] is the rare appearance of a baby zombie, baby zombie pigman, baby zombie villager, baby husk, or baby drowned riding a chicken.
Spawning
Each baby zombie, baby husk, baby zombie villager, baby zombie pigman, or baby drowned that spawns has a 5% chance to check for an existing chicken within a 10×6×10 box centered on the baby's spawn location, and spawn riding one of those chickens if there are any. If it fails that 5% chance to check for existing chickens, there is an additional 5% chance of the baby zombie spawning mounted on a new chicken. In a chicken-free environment, each spawned zombie has a 0.25% chance of becoming a chicken jockey; if chickens are present, the chance increases to 0.4875%.
Chicken jockeys may spawn with items equipped. Baby zombie pigmen versions of the chicken jockey always have a golden sword equipped, while baby drowned versions may have a trident. Provoking the zombie pigman chicken jockey causes it to attack, like a normal zombie pigman.
In Bedrock Edition and Legacy Console Edition, baby zombie, baby husk and baby zombie villagers have 15% chance to become jockey, which can ride:
- Adult chickens
- Adult ocelots and stray cats
- Adult wild wolves
- Adult zombies and variants
- Cows
- Pigs
- Sheep
- Horses and variants
- Mooshrooms
- Spiders
- Cave spiders
- Polar bears
- Llamas
- Pandas
Any rideable or tameable mob can become unrideable or untameable, respectively, after being mounted by a baby zombie.
In Bedrock Edition, if a baby zombie has spawned on another type of mob (such as an Adult zombie), killing the chicken jockey's current ' mount ' in an area populated with chicken may result in the baby zombie jumping onto a chicken rather than attacking the player.
Using the summon command: /summon chicken ~ ~ ~ {Passengers:[{id:zombie,IsBaby:1}]} yields a chicken jockey.[Java Edition only]
In Java Edition, there is an extremely low chance for a baby zombie villager to spawn wearing enchanted full diamond armor and holding an enchanted diamond sword while riding a chicken; the chance is 1.9921×10-33%, making this mob the rarest in the game.
Drops
Chicken
Chickens drop:
- 0–2 Feather
- 1 Raw Chicken, when not killed by fire
- 1 Cooked Chicken, when killed while on fire
- 10 experience if killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Baby zombie
Baby zombies drop:
- 0–2 Rotten Flesh, and rarely carrots, potatoes and iron ingots.
- Baby zombies also have a 8.5% chance each of dropping their
- Iron Shovel
- Iron Sword
- or any equipped armor that they spawned with. The chance of each can be increased by 1% per level of Looting, up to 11.5% chance. The equipment is usually badly damaged, and may be enchanted.
If killed by a charged creeper, it drops a zombie head.
They drop 12 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf, 1–3 extra experience is given if the zombie has equipment.
Baby drowned
Baby drowned drop:
- 0–2 Rotten Flesh
- (Rarely) a Gold Ingot.
Baby drowned also have an 8.5% chance each of dropping their:
The chance of each can be increased by 1% per level of Looting, up to 11.5% chance. It is usually badly damaged and never enchanted.
Baby drowned always drop their Nautilus Shell, but only when held in their offhand.
Like baby zombies, they drop 12 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Baby zombie pigman
Baby zombie pigman drop:
- 0–1 Rotten Flesh
- 0-1 Gold Nugget
- (Rarely) a Gold Ingot.
Baby zombie pigmen also have an 8.5% chance each of dropping their golden sword. The chance of each can be increased by 1% per level of Looting, up to 11.5% chance. It is usually badly damaged, and may be enchanted.
Like baby zombies, they drop 12 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Halloween
If a baby zombie or zombie pigman wearing a pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, there is a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.
Behavior
- Chicken jockeys generally run around, behaving like the zombie, instead of using the chicken AI.
- Bedrock Edition is an exception.
- Chicken jockeys fall slowly and do not take fall damage, like normal chickens.
- The chicken moves at the speed of the baby zombie, which is much faster than a normal chicken.
- The chicken can run through 1 block high gaps. If the above block is solid, the baby zombie suffocates unless the block is transparent.
- Chicken jockeys can pick up/equip items.
- The chicken does not lay eggs. However, they can still be bred into regular chickens.
- The baby zombie and the chicken can be separated by using a bucket of water on them.
- In Creative mode, a chicken jockey that isn't already targeting a player follows a player holding seeds, like a normal chicken, and can be fed. In Survival mode, the chicken jockey targets a player who attempts to do this, and the chicken cannot be fed.
Video
- Note: This video is outdated, Chicken Jockeys no longer lay eggs since 1.8.
History
| Java Edition | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 29, 2013 | A two-image gallery was uploaded to Imgur, and showed a baby zombie inside a chicken. It was also posted to Reddit. | ||||
| November 30, 2013 | Dinnerbone tweeted the link to an image of chicken jockeys, after seeing the image on Reddit. | ||||
| 1.7.4 | 13w49a | Added chicken jockeys. | |||
| 1.7.5 | Chickens that are part of chicken jockeys can now despawn when no longer ridden. | ||||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Chicken jockeys no longer lay eggs. | |||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Added baby husk jockey variant. | |||
| 1.13 | 18w11a | Added baby drowned jockey variant. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.11.0 | build 1 | Added chicken jockeys. | |||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Baby zombies variant have 15% chance to mount a chicken to become a jockey. | |||
| Removed Pigman chicken jockey. | |||||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Baby husk have 15% chance to mount a chicken to become a jockey. | |||
| Baby zombie variants can ride adult husk. | |||||
| Baby zombie variants can ride horse variants. | |||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Baby zombie variants can ride polar bears. | |||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Baby zombie variants can ride llamas. | |||
| ? | Adult zombie pigmen are no longer rideable by baby zombie variants. | ||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.8.0 | beta 1.8.0.8 | Baby zombie variants can ride pandas and adult stray cats. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Added chicken jockeys. | |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added Chicken Jockeys. | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Chicken Jockey" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The baby zombie's hitbox is larger than the chicken's. Attacking the chicken may harm the zombie instead, unless the player carefully attacks its feet.
- Chicken jockeys, like spider jockeys, cannot pass through portals.
- Zombie pigman chicken jockeys can spawn from portals in the Overworld.
- A normal chicken jockey may spawn in the Nether if a zombie pigman calls a normal zombie as reinforcement.
- If the zombie happens to be a zombie villager, curing it separates the cured villager from the chicken.
- Name tags prevent the chickens from despawning, and they can be bred to spawn normal egg-laying, non-despawning chickens.
- Chicken jockeys can spawn from zombie spawners.
- The wither attempts to attack the chicken being ridden by the zombie and the zombie also takes damage.
- Adult zombies and zombie pigmen can also control a chicken while riding on it, though they do not naturally spawn on chickens.
- A zombie pigman chicken jockey does not become hostile if the chicken is killed or attacked.
Gallery
Chicken jockey named Dinnerbone.
Zombie pigman chicken jockey.
A chicken jockey from Bedrock Edition.
- Chicken Jockey Mobestiary.jpeg


















