Chicken

A chicken is a passive mob found in grass biomes and the main source of Chicken, feathers and eggs. This mob can be attached to a lead.

Spawning[]

Chickens spawn naturally in the Overworld in groups of four on grass blocks with 2 blocks of free space above it at a light level of 9 or more. They do not spawn in deserts, snowy plains, ice spikes, snowy slopes, meadows, wooded badlands, jagged peaks, frozen peaks and stony peaks. In Java Edition, chickens are more common in sparse jungles.

After the world generation, chickens spawn individually.

5% of chickens spawn as baby chickens.

In Bedrock Edition, chickens require a light level of 7 or more to spawn and are found in groups of two to four.

Chicken Jockey[]

Java Edition[]

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[]

Baby zombie jockeys do not 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[]

Adult Chickens that were not part of Chicken jockeys lay an egg every five to ten minutes.

When an adult Chicken is killed, it drops from zero to two feathers. The maximum is increased by one per level of Looting, for a maximum of zero to five with Looting III. The chicken also drops a raw chicken (one cooked chicken if killed while on fire). The maximum is increased by one per level of Looting, for a maximum of one to four with Looting III. 1–3 experience orbs are dropped when a Chicken is killed by a player or tamed wolf or 10 if it was part of a Chicken jockey. When two adult Chickens breed, 1–7 orbs are dropped.

Killing a baby Chicken yields no items or experience.

Behavior[]

A Chickens wanders aimlessly but go after players holding various seeds within a six by four by six cubic area, while a baby Chicken follows adult Chickens.

Chickens avoid falling off cliffs and flap their wings when they are in middle air and fall slowly, thus Chickens are immune to fall damage.

When harmed, Chickens flee around for a few seconds.

Chickens uniquely attempt to jump up to climb stairs instead of climbing them normally.^[1]

Ocelots, untamed cats‌^{[JE only]} and foxes pursue and attack chickens.

While in a loaded chunk, an adult Chicken lays an egg every five to ten 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 stay underwater for 15 seconds or can swim, visibly flapping their wings and staying on the water surface. While swimming, a Chicken needs only one block of air above its head.

A chicken is 11 pixels or 0.6875 blocks tall. A chick is 5.5 pixels tall or 0.34375 blocks tall.

Breeding[]

If two adult Chickens are fed wheat seeds, beetroot seeds, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, torchflower seeds, or a pitcher pod, a baby Chicken 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. A baby chick fed a seed once per second will grow up in approximately 48 seconds using 47 seeds. A baby chick fed a seed once per tick ( assuming 20 tps ) will grow up in approximatedly 3 seconds using 56 seeds.

Chicks are smaller than a half-block and can unwillingly pass through openings smaller than a full block, but do not walk through half-block-tall spaces. A chick riding a minecart cannot be hit because it is completely inside the minecart's hitbox.

Eggs[]

Chickens are the only Overworld mob that can repopulate without breeding. Adult Chickens lay eggs at random and an egg thrown at the ground by a player or a dispenser has a ¹⁄₈ chance of spawning a baby Chicken. If a baby chicken spawns from a thrown egg, there is a further ¹⁄₃₂ chance to spawn three extra baby Chickens, or ¹⁄₂₅₆ overall. 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 baby Chicken can spawn on the far side of the pane.

As Chickens can produce each other with eggs, they're perhaps the only passive mob you can farm with just a single individual, if you're willing to wait patiently and constantly throw eggs.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Chickens use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data[]

Chickens have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Trader Llama Turtle Wolf A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs 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 24 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer 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 breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/bred_all_animals

History[]

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.14					Chickens were added.
					Chickens fall more slowly 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.
					Chickens now run away when attacked.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2			Chickens can now be bred using 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.
		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.
		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 using melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, and beetroot seeds, in addition to regular seeds.
		15w43a			Chickens can now drop several raw/cooked chicken, if killed with a Looting-enchanted weapon.
1.10		16w20a			Chickens no longer spawn in ice plains.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from Chicken to chicken.
					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.
		19w07a			Added foxes, which pursue and kill chickens.
1.15		19w37a			5% of chickens now spawn as babies.
1.20 (Experimental)		1.19.4 Pre-release 1			Chickens can now be fed using torchflower seeds.[3]
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.3.0					Added chickens.
					Baby chickens have also been added, but they do not yet spawn naturally.
v0.6.0					Baby chickens now spawn naturally.
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 1			Baby chickens can now be spawned by throwing eggs.
					Chickens can now breed.
					Chickens now follow the player if the player holds 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.
					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.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.20.27			Chickens no longer spawn in snowy taigas.
		Release			Reverted the chicken spawning change made in beta 1.18.20.27.
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.
					Chicken can now be bred using 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[]

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

Trivia[]

• 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,^[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]
  • The changelog for Pocket Edition v0.3.0 alpha referred to chickens as ducks.^[6]
  • Notch later referred to chickens in a blog post as "the Chicken/duck/whatevers".^[7]

Gallery[]

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  A chicken.

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  A dying chicken and its item drops when killed.

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  A chicken farm containing over 100 chickens.

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  A chicken farm.

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  Around 240 adult chickens in a circle.

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  A chicken next to an egg.

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  A chicken next to a burning baby zombie.

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  A chicken looking at the player.

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  A chicken riding a minecart.

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  A chicken compared to a tiny slime.

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  A chicken on fire.

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  A chicken swimming.

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  A group of chickens following a player.

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  A chicken being attacked by an ocelot.

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  A chicken flapping its wings while falling from a high place.

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  A chicken compared to a lamb (baby sheep).

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  A pen full of chickens.

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  An automatic chicken farm.

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  A bunch of chickens on an island.

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  A large amount of chickens.

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  Animation of a chicken floating, flying, or sitting.

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  Animation of a baby chicken floating, flying, or sitting.

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  The Diamond Chicken, a joke variant featured in Java Edition 2.0

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  The Secret Chicken, featured in the Trails & Tales Event.

Cosmetics[]

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  Chicken Body, sold as part of the Community Celebration event.

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  Chicken Hat, also sold as part of the Community Celebration event.

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  Chicken Jockey Costume by Dots Aglow

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  Chicken Legs by Razzleberries

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  Chicken in a Suit, a skin featured in the Battle & Beasts skin pack.

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  Chicken Tee

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  Chicken & Zombie by Panascais

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  City texture pack

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  Greek Mythology mash-up pack

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  Halloween mash-up pack

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  Zombie Jockey Harness

Other media[]

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  An artwork of a chicken by Mojang.

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  Ditto.

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  A chicken in promotional artwork for the Horse Update.

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  A Chicken in promotional artwork for the first Caves & Cliffs update.

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  A chicken startling Sunny and Efe.^[8]

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  Benedict, also known as the Eversource, a chicken featured in Minecraft Story Mode.

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  A Fancy Chicken, a unique variation of a chicken feautred in Minecraft Earth.

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  A chicken as it appears in Minecraft Legends.

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  Lego Minecraft Chicken.

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  Flower Chicken, an official T-Shirt design.

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  Jolly Mobs Chicken, an official T-Shirt design.

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  Wavy Chicken, an official T-Shirt design.

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  Acid Duck, an official T-Shirt design.

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  Evolution of the Chicken, a design featued on an official water bottle.

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  Blue Chicken Family, an official tote bag.

Textures[]

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  Programmer Art

References[]