Chicken Jockeys are an extremely rare mob. They consist of a Baby Zombie or a baby Zombie Pigmen riding a chicken.
Behavior
- Chicken Jockeys run around like Baby Zombies, instead of using the chicken AI.
- Even though the Zombie AI is used, the chicken still randomly lays eggs.
- Chicken Jockeys will not avoid bumping into walls that would potentially suffocate the Baby Zombie.
- Chicken Jockeys do not take fall damage, as the chicken flaps its wings quickly, slowing the falling speed.
- The chicken moves at the speed of the Baby Zombie, which is much faster than a normal chicken.
- Chicken Jockeys can track the player over a very large distance.
- Like Zombies, the Chicken Jockey will also track villagers.
- Although a Chicken Jockeys hitbox is 3 blocks tall, the chicken can still run through 1 block high gaps. If the above block is solid, the Baby Zombie will take suffocation damage.
- Chicken Jockeys can pick up/equip ground items.
Spawn
Each baby zombie or baby Zombie Pigman that spawns has a 5% chance to spawn riding a chicken. There is an additional 5% chance of it mounting any existing chicken within a 10x6x10 box centered on the baby zombie's spawn location. 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%.
Chicken Jockeys may spawn with items equipped. Baby Zombie Pigmen versions of the Chicken Jockey will always have their Gold Sword equipped.
History
| 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. | ||||
| r | |||||
| 1.7.4 | 13w49a | Chicken Jockeys were added. | |||
Issues
Issues relating to "Chicken Jockey" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- If the player goes far enough away, the baby zombie despawns but the chicken does not, leaving a regular chicken behind.
- The command to spawn a Chicken Jockey is /summon Zombie ~ ~ ~ {IsBaby:1,Riding:{id:Chicken}}
- This is not exactly the same mob, but it is close, the real Chicken Jockey is positioned lower on the Chicken's back, which you can get by spawning a large number of zombies
- 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.
- If the chicken moves too close to a wall two blocks high, the zombie half will take suffocation damage unless the upper block is transparent.
- Since they can spawn in the Nether, eggs, feathers and raw chicken are renewable, without having to bring eggs from the Overworld.
- When a Splash Potion of Harming is tossed at a Chicken Jockey, the Chicken dies, but the Baby Zombie gains some health. Vice versa, if a Splash Potion of Instant Health is thrown at a Chicken Jockey, the Chicken is healed, but the Baby Zombie dies. This makes healing them as a single mob very unlikely.
- Chicken Jockeys and Spider Jockeys are the only mobs that cannot pass through portals.
- If the zombie happens to be a villager zombie, curing it will separate the formed villager from the chicken.
Gallery
Chicken Jockey named Dinnerbone
Zombie Pigmen Chicken Jockey
References






