Chicken
passiveBreedableOurs, not the game's own: how a chicken behaves. Bedrock v1.26.40.05 differs: groups of 4 on Java against 2 to 4 on Bedrock. Checked 2026-08-22, and how
Added InOverview
In Minecraft, the Chicken is classified as a passive mob: it will never attack a player and simply goes about its own behaviour.
Look for the Chicken across the Overworld; it is tied to Plains, Forest, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest, and 2 other biome types.
In practice you will recognise it quickly, because wanders aimlessly, flaps wings to fall slowly (no fall damage).
Stat-wise it sits at 4 health (2 hearts), dropping 1 to 3 experience on death.
It was first added in Alpha v1.0.14 and has been a fixture of Minecraft ever since.
Also worth noting: Baby chickens can hatch from thrown eggs (1/8 chance).
Because it breeds and drops useful materials, the Chicken is a staple of self-sufficient survival bases, supplying raw chicken on demand.
Spawning
Chickens spawn in Plains, Forest, Sunflower Plains, Flower Forest, Birch Forest, and Taiga.
Because it appears across 24 different biomes, it is one of the easier mobs to track down, and heading to any of them should turn one up before long.
Spawns on grass blocks with light level 9+, in groups of 4.
Pay attention to lighting: a light level of 9+ is required, which is exactly what makes torch placement such an effective way to suppress or encourage these spawns.
They tend to arrive in clusters of 4 rather than alone, so expect to meet more than one at a time.
Naturally spawned chickens will despawn over time when no player is nearby; naming one with a name tag or leading it away on a lead keeps it permanent.
With no attack to worry about, the Chicken is something you gather or farm rather than fight.
Badlands
Bamboo Jungle
Birch Forest
Dark Forest
Eroded Badlands
Flower Forest
Forest
Jungle
Old Growth Birch Forest
Old Growth Pine Taiga
Old Growth Spruce Taiga
Plains
Savanna
Savanna Plateau
Snowy Taiga
Sparse Jungle
Sunflower Plains
Swamp
Taiga
Windswept Forest
Windswept Gravelly Hills
Windswept Hills
Windswept Savanna
Wooded BadlandsWhere the Chicken spawns
Birch Forest, Dark Forest and Old Growth Birch Forest are where it stands strongest: weight 10 on the creature list and 25% of it, arriving 4 at a time. There it shares the list with Sheep at 12, Pig at 10 and Cow at 8, 40 weight together, of which 10 is chicken. The other 24 biomes on its list run from 22.7% down to 5.9%.
| Biome | Weight | Share | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birch Forest | 10 | 25% | 4 |
| Dark Forest | 10 | 25% | 4 |
| Old Growth Birch Forest | 10 | 25% | 4 |
| Flower Forest | 10 | 22.7% | 4 |
| Forest | 10 | 22.2% | 4 |
| Windswept Forest | 10 | 22.2% | 4 |
| Windswept Gravelly Hills | 10 | 22.2% | 4 |
| Windswept Hills | 10 | 22.2% | 4 |
| Badlands | 10 | 21.7% | 4 |
| Eroded Badlands | 10 | 21.7% | 4 |
| Plains | 10 | 21.7% | 4 |
| Sunflower Plains | 10 | 21.7% | 4 |
| Wooded Badlands | 10 | 20.8% | 4 |
| Swamp | 10 | 20% | 4 |
| Savanna | 10 | 19.2% | 4 |
| Windswept Savanna | 10 | 19.2% | 4 |
| Sparse Jungle | 10 | 17.2% | 4 |
| Sparse Jungle | 10 | 17.2% | 4 |
| Old Growth Pine Taiga | 10 | 16.7% | 4 |
| Old Growth Spruce Taiga | 10 | 16.7% | 4 |
| Snowy Taiga | 10 | 16.7% | 4 |
| Taiga | 10 | 16.7% | 4 |
| Savanna Plateau | 10 | 14.7% | 4 |
| Jungle | 10 | 11% | 4 |
| Jungle | 10 | 11% | 4 |
| Bamboo Jungle | 10 | 5.9% | 4 |
| Bamboo Jungle | 10 | 5.9% | 4 |
Drops
The Chicken drop table breaks down like this:
Every kill yields 1 Raw Chicken.
On top of that, you may come away with 0 to 2 Feathers.
You also collect 1 to 3 experience for every Chicken you defeat.
Raw Chicken from chickens is renewable, so a small breeding setup keeps you supplied indefinitely.
Across many kills the guaranteed items pile up steadily while the chance-based extras trickle in, so consistent farming is the way to build a meaningful stockpile.
Because the Chicken is harmless and breeds, the efficient long-term approach is a small enclosed pen where a breeding pair keeps replacing what you harvest, rather than hunting wild ones down one by one.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feather | 0 to 2 | not every kill | Looting III up to 5 |
| Raw Chicken | 1 | always | Looting III up to 4, cooked when burnt |
The same Feather comes off the parrot drops 1 to 2.
Chicken attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.4 x 0.7 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.644 blocks |
 Tracking range | 10 chunks |
 Health | 4 points |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Experience | 1 to 3 |
 Movement speed | 0.25 |
Where the Chicken lands, it has company: the snow golem on the same 4 health.
Chicken: 7.61% of its category, rank 11 of 52
On 24 of the 66 biome lists (27 spawn entries in total), and 7.61% of every spawn the game puts in its creature group is a chicken.
The ranges Minecraft Java 26.2 rolls for a chicken give 1 Feather per kill, so 64 Feather costs 64 kills before Looting. Next down is Raw Chicken at 1 a kill, which is 64 chicken kills to 64.
| Item | Average per kill |
|---|---|
 Feather | 1 |
 Raw Chicken | 1 |
How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Feather |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 1 | 64 |
 stone sword | 5 | 1 | 64 |
 iron sword | 6 | 1 | 64 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 1 | 64 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 1 | 64 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 1 | 64 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 1 | 64 |
Behavior & Combat
Wanders aimlessly, flaps wings to fall slowly (no fall damage). Lays an egg every 5-10 minutes.
Its 4 health is 73rd of 80, just over the 3 of the rabbit.
Because it never attacks, you are in no danger from it directly; the Chicken simply goes about its routine.
Chickens can be bred with Wheat Seeds; feed it to two adults and they produce a baby that grows up over about twenty minutes.
All told, the Chicken is a low-risk part of the world that rewards patience more than aggression.
Chicken commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:chicken | Puts a chicken on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:chicken_spawn_egg | Hands you the chicken spawn egg, so you can place chickens where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:chicken] | Removes every chicken that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:chicken, spawn egg minecraft:chicken_spawn_egg.
Chicken farm
A chicken farm copies the rule the game already uses for chicken spawns. Spawns on grass blocks with light level 9+, in groups of 4.
The chicken is heaviest in Birch Forest at 25%, out of the 27 biome spawn lists it stands on, so a chicken farm belongs there rather than in the first cave you find.
The game puts 4 chickens down per roll, so a wide chicken floor beats a tall one.
Breeding beats waiting on spawns here: wheat seeds given to two adults produces a baby, and the pen keeps working in a lit, walled space where nothing new would ever spawn.
Each kill is worth 1 to 3 experience and up to 2 feathers, or 5 with Looting III, so the size of the chicken farm follows the number you need of that one item.
Chicken version history
The chicken was added in Minecraft Alpha v1.0.14, which came out on 29 July 2010, so the chicken has been in the game for 16 years.
No other mob on this site arrived in Alpha v1.0.14, so the chicken is the only page here that carries that version. 9 of our 88 mobs are older than the chicken, 78 are younger.
The chicken numbers here come from Java 26.2, the version running now, and not from the one that introduced it.
Chicken variants (3)
Chickens come in three climates, and the eggs they lay keep the look of the parent.
| Variant | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Cold |  Cold Ocean Deep Cold Ocean Deep Dark Deep Frozen Ocean End Barrensand 21 more biomes in the same group |
| Warm | BadlandsBamboo Jungle Basalt Deltas Crimson Forest Deep Lukewarm Oceanand 14 more biomes in the same group |
| Temperate | Any chicken the game spawns without a rule of its own can be this one. |
What Chicken sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every chicken sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 4 lines a chicken can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.chicken.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.chicken.ambient |  Chicken clucks |
| entity.chicken.hurt | Chicken hurts |
| entity.chicken.death | Chicken dies |
| entity.chicken.egg | Chicken plops |
Advancements that need Chicken
One advancement in the game asks for chicken by name.
Two by TwoBreed all the animals!
