Ode to the Minecraft chicken

Minecraft players are no strangers to the humble chicken - the passive mob that can be found in nearly every biome in the game. These feathered friends are often taken for granted, but they are actually quite useful and play a larger role in the game than many players realize.

For starters, chickens are a source of food. When killed, they drop raw chicken meat that can be cooked in a furnace to restore hunger points. They are also a renewable resource, as they lay eggs that can be used to breed more chickens.

But chickens have other uses as well. Their feathers can be used to craft arrows, and they can also be used as a cheap way to transport items. When a chicken is equipped with a chest and you have a special mod, it becomes a "chicken chest" - a mobile inventory that can hold up to 27 stacks of items. This can be useful for players who need to move items long distances but don't want to carry them all by hand.

Chickens are also useful for players who are trying to avoid being attacked by hostile mobs. When a player is being chased by a mob, they can often lose the pursuit by leading the mob into a group of chickens. The chickens will attack the mob, causing it to turn its attention away from the player and onto the fowl, giving the player a chance to escape.

Previously, I wrote about starting a new Survival Mode game in a village I named Taratera. Here are my continuing adventures during the first full day of exploring this village and its surroundings.

Once I collected enough wood and picked up some seeds from the ground, I decided to try to tame and breed some chickens. Chickens are a great source of food and even more importantly, they produce feathers, which you need for arrows.

Two of the villagers stopped me while I was taming my first chicken. They wanted to know who I was and how I obtained my very nice leather pants, boots, and helmet. Apparently the village tanner began asking around about his empty chest. I played dumb and got back to breeding chickens.

 Pretty soon, I had a small flock of about 10 chickens. I haven’t built a coop for them yet. That will be a project for another day. Right now, they are free range chickens and just wander around the village, looking for food. I wonder when the villagers start to notice there are way more chickens around here than there used to be.

I met two of the villagers today and thought I would introduce them. The first is the village farmer, Waldo Newman. He’s got a bit of a dour look on his face. That’s because someone has been stealing his carrots. No, it’s not me, although I did help myself to a few of them.

Waldo thinks one of the kids in the village is to blame. Specifically, he thinks young Randall is the culprit. This is Randall, hiding in the grass just outside the village square.

Randall is very mischievous, but I don’t think he’s to blame for stealing Waldo Newman’s carrots. Someone else is the carrot thief. Maybe I can help Waldo find out who is behind the disappearing carrots. I want to get on Waldo’s good side, because it turns out he is holding onto a lot of emeralds and is willing to trade them for certain crops. I may need to build my own farm here in Taratera. Selling crops to Farmer Newman might be a lucrative undertaking.

For now, though, I need to upgrade my tools and put together more supplies. For that, I need a crafting station. I decide to set up shop right in the village square.

Here I am creating a set of stone tools. They’re a nice upgrade from my shabby wooden ones. I’d like to upgrade them to iron, once I collect enough ingots.

The shadows are getting longer and the sun is setting over the hills outside of Taratera. Soon, night will fall and Faramund the Protector (the local iron golem) will go to work, battling the invading hordes. Me? I’m going to find an empty bed and rest after a long first day’s work here in Taratera.