Chickens
See Spawn mechanics for the complete light, habitat, distance, population and unloading rules.
Find wild adult chickens on well-lit surface grass during the day. Bring seeds or grain to lead a pair home, build a pen from ordinary blocks and doors, and feed them to raise chicks.
Hold wheat/flax/carrot/berry seeds or Wheat Grain to attract chickens within ten blocks. Aim at an adult and right-click/Use or Interact to feed one item. Feed a nearby second adult within 30 active seconds. With clear space nearby, the pair produces one chick and rests for five active minutes before breeding again. Repeated feeding during readiness or rest consumes nothing. Chicks cannot breed.
A chick becomes an adult after ten active minutes. Leave room for its adult body: growth waits under a low ceiling or if another creature occupies the space. Chickens can climb one-block steps, so make pen walls high enough and use a door for access.
Each adult lays one Egg every five to ten active minutes. Pick it up like any dropped item. Eggs cook into food; they cannot be thrown to hatch chicks.
Defeating an adult gives one Raw Chicken and one or two Feathers. Chicks drop neither. Feathers have no crafting use yet.
Use either a Cooker with burnable fuel or an Electric Cooker with electricity. Select the desired recipe and load its ingredients. Each takes ten seconds at full working rate.
| Meal | Ingredients | Food restored | Saturation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked Chicken | 1 Raw Chicken | 6 | 2 |
| Cooked Egg | 1 Egg | 4 | 1 |
| Chicken Stew | 1 raw or cooked chicken + 2 vegetables | 12 | 4 |
Potatoes and carrots can be mixed for stew. Raw Chicken restores 2 food points when eaten directly; raw Eggs are cooking ingredients. Raw meat adds no saturation. Food and hunger explains how prepared-food reserves delay the next meal.
Chickens remain in your saved world when you travel away. Their timers pause while distant or unloaded and while the game is closed. A chunk loader alone does not make a distant chicken farm produce eggs. Return within 68 blocks to resume the nearby population. Save through Escape before quitting.
These timings are initial balance settings. See Farming and cooking for growing feed and vegetables.
Screenshots: September 19, 2026, from the chicken development player. The small review enclosure illustrates the animals and interactions; build taller walls for a lasting pen.