Chicken
| Chicken | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Class | Farming and Animals |
| Type | Livestock |
| Life Stages |
|
| Breeds |
|
| Smallest Pen | 40 tiles |
| Hatching | 21 days |
| Products | Egg |
| Food |
|
| Old Age | 4320 days |
The Chicken is a small farm bird that gives a survivor a steady supply of eggs, meat and feathers. It is one of the easiest animals to keep, and a small flock can feed a base for a long time.
Chickens are livestock. They live on farms and in backyard coops across the map, and they stay close to people instead of running away. Every chicken starts life as a Chick. A Chick grows into a Hen if it is female and a Cockerel if it is male. The Hen lays the eggs, and the Cockerel fertilizes them so they can hatch.
The game has two breeds, the Leghorn and the Rhode Island Red. They differ only in looks. Adult Leghorns are white, and adult Rhode Island Reds are brown. Chicks of both breeds look the same.
Chickens matter because they turn cheap feed into fresh food every single day. A Hen lays an egg daily whether a Cockerel is present or not. A flock with a Cockerel also renews itself, so old birds can go to the pot while chicks replace them.
How to Raise Chicken
Chickens are kept inside a livestock zone. The zone helps them find nearby troughs and their hutch, and it keeps them from wandering. Hungry, thirsty or stressed birds may still leave it. A pen sized well above the minimum keeps the flock calm and growing.
Chickens eat almost anything a farm can offer. Animal feed, grass, hay, vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts and insects all work. They graze on usable grass inside the zone, and spare food can go into a feeding trough. Water goes into a separate trough or a bucket. A trough holds food or water, never both at once.
The Chicken Hutch is the heart of a coop. Birds walk in during the evening and come out again in the morning. Its doors must stay open while they move, then close for the night. A closed hutch protects the flock from the night predator event. Birds left sleeping in the open are the ones that go missing.
The hutch gets dirty over time, faster with more birds inside. A dirty hutch harms the health of the flock. Cleaning it takes water and an item that can scrub stains.
Chickens can be picked up, carried and petted. Petting raises an animal's trust and lowers its stress. It also trains the Animal Care skill. Stress comes from nearby zombies, gunfire, crowding and slaughter in sight of the flock. A roof over part of the pen matters more than walls.
Chicken Breeding
A Chick grows up in about four months of game time. It then becomes a Hen or a Cockerel, and both can breed as adults. Chickens mate all year round.
A Cockerel fertilizes the hens that share his livestock zone. A fertilized Hen stays fertile for up to two weeks. Every egg she lays in that time can hatch. Eggs laid by a Hen with no Cockerel around are good for eating only.
A fertilized egg hatches after about three weeks. The hatch time can be changed in the sandbox settings.
Genes shape each bird. They can affect fertility, egg size, growth, weight, lifespan and resistance to hunger, thirst and stress. Adult Cockerels fight other Cockerels, mostly when stressed. Repeated fights raise their stress and can hurt them, so one Cockerel per flock is the safe choice. Adult chickens live for many years before they reach old age.
The chicken grows through these stages, each one taking the days shown to reach full size.
| Stage | Image | Grows For | Becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chick | 
|
126 days | Hen, Cockerel |
| Hen | 
|
360 days | - |
| Cockerel | 
|
360 days | - |
Chicken Breeds
Each breed of chicken the game spawns.
| Breed | Image |
|---|---|
| Rhode Island Red |
|
| Leghorn | 
|
Chicken Products
A Hen lays one Egg a day. She uses the nest boxes inside the hutch first. When the nests are full or no hutch is near, she lays on the ground somewhere in the zone. Eggs are gathered by hand from the hutch or from the ground. Collecting eggs is a quiet way to train Animal Care each day.
Living chickens also leave Chicken Droppings and Chicken Feathers around the pen. Droppings are compostable and go into a composter to feed the garden. Feathers are used in tailoring recipes such as stuffed pillows.
What a living chicken gives without being butchered.
| Product | Name | Image | How | Spawn ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eggs | Egg | 
|
1 a day from a Hen | /additem Base.Egg
|
Chicken Butchering
A chicken carcass gives a whole bird ready to cook. Adults also give feet, a head, a skull, feathers and small bone pieces. A Chick gives a little Small Bird Meat instead of a whole bird. Cockerels drop a Rooster Head and Rooster Skull, which differ from the Hen's.
The number of feathers depends on the bird's plumage at the time it dies.
The carcass is used up completely and leaves no skeleton behind. The Butchering skill improves what each carcass gives. Slaughter should happen out of sight of the living flock, since watching it stresses them.
What a butchered carcass gives at each life stage, one tab per stage.
| Name | Image | Amount | Breed | Spawn ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Bird Meat | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Smallbirdmeat
|
| Bone Pieces | 
|
2-4 | All | /additem Base.SmallAnimalBone
|
| Chick Head | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Chicken_Chick_Head
|
| Chick Skull | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Chicken_Chick_Skull
|
| Chicken Feather | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenFeather
|
| Name | Image | Amount | Breed | Spawn ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Foot | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenFoot
|
| Chicken (Whole) | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenWhole
|
| Bone Pieces |
|
4-6 | All | /additem Base.SmallAnimalBone
|
| Chicken Head | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Chicken_Hen_Brown_Head
|
| Chicken Skull | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Chicken_Hen_Skull
|
| Chicken Feather |
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenFeather
|
| Name | Image | Amount | Breed | Spawn ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Foot |
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenFoot
|
| Chicken (Whole) |
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenWhole
|
| Bone Pieces |
|
4-6 | All | /additem Base.SmallAnimalBone
|
| Rooster Head | 
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Chicken_Rooster_Head_Brown
|
| Rooster Skull |
|
1 | All | /additem Base.Chicken_Rooster_Skull
|
| Chicken Feather |
|
1 | All | /additem Base.ChickenFeather
|
Chicken Locations
Chickens start on farms with poultry yards. Small backyard flocks hold a few hens and no rooster. Standard farm flocks keep several hens with one Cockerel. Large poultry farms hold a big flock of hens with a single Cockerel. Ovo Farms is one well known poultry site. Some poultry yards roll either chickens or turkeys when the map is made. The breed is picked at random unless the farm sets one.
The farms that start with chicken, by size, and how many females and males each one holds.
| Farm Size | Females | Males |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 4 to 10 | 1 to 1 |
| Small | 1 to 5 | 0 to 0 |
| Large | 10 to 20 | 1 to 1 |
Notes
- Close the hutch doors at night to save the flock from predators.
- A flock without a Cockerel still lays eggs every day.
- Keep only one Cockerel per flock to avoid fights.
- Clean the hutch often, since dirt makes the birds sick.
- Droppings make good compost for the garden.
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