A chicken is either a hen or a rooster in game.
Chickens eat barley (raw) and when slaughtered produce chicken meat used for cooking. They live in a Chicken Coop or may be held in inventory (the stashing in chests bug was fixed)
The egg came before the chicken: The first chickens came from eggs found in trees. Any person who knows the avian selection skill has a small chance of finding an egg every time they harvest wood from a tree. At this point, it is far simpler to trade for eggs or chickens than to search trees for eggs.
Then again, maybe chickens did come first. Every once in a while, if you Examine tall grasses like pampas, you will find a hen. -- Mnhtp
Found 2 hens in the same grass, the same night. Just 2 hours (IG) between searchs -- MrBungle
I found roosters only in Dark Pampa Grass and hens in Pale Pampa Grass. -- TheMazeEcho
Eggs placed in a chicken coop will hatch into hens and (very rarely) roosters. Hens prevent eggs from hatching; if there are just hens in a coop, no eggs will hatch. Roosters counter this effect: For every rooster in a coop, up to one egg will hatch at a time.
Hens in a coop will lay eggs. All eggs are fertile, regardless of the presence or absence of roosters.
It is worth noting that roosters are completely unnecessary when raising chickens. It is much simpler to keep two coops (one containing hens which lay eggs, and one containing only eggs which hatch new chickens) than it is to keep one coop containing both hens and roosters. (Alternately, a single coop may alternate periods of laying and hatching.)
The temperature of the coop appears to have an effect on the rate at which eggs hatch, hens lay new eggs, and chickens eat barley. Temperature may be controlled by adjusting the slats on the coop. Rumor has it that a temperature of 120 may be good for hatching eggs, and one of 80 may be good for laying.
Unfed chickens will eventually starve. Chickens eat 1 barley per real hour, or 3 Egypt hours.
Roosters are more likely to show up in a pen containing only 1-2 eggs. (Actually this conserves eggs - and it seems as if per hatching there is a max of 1 rooster).
At approximately 6 a.m. Egypt time, some percentage of eggs will hatch, and some percentage of hens will lay eggs. It seems that the laying occurs just after the hatching.
It looks to me that eggs in the coop will prevent more eggs from being laid. Can anyone confirm or deny this? - Foxkids
This does not appear to be the case. My hens continue to lay eggs and I haven't removed any of them. - Japto
This is an unconfirmed occurence, but a hen did not lay an egg at 6 a.m. Egypt time, but at some point near the optimal egg laying temperature which was reached at around mid-afternoon Egypt time in a coop that was at 20 at 6 a.m. (Egypt time). -- Taurean
I have had 2 consecutive mornings my 20 hens laid 40 eggs, they were not removed from coop during the interim times and temp was about 85 degrees approx. (lower at times in between with possibly 1 or 2 adjusts to achieve temp at laying time) barley count was around 1k not that I know if that matters but...(hens laid 20 per day for I think 7 consecutive game days unremoved from pen at any time, 40 eggs began after that pt)--Zokar
When my hens stopped laying for a number of days, I decided to trust my own judgement and put a rooster in, and I got a full crop of eggs again. Masculine companionship - don't underrate it! - Nopar King