Feather

Overview

Feathers make arrows, and that is most of what any player needs to know — but the supply question is the interesting part. Chickens drop 0 to 2 each, and chickens are the easiest animal in the game to farm because they lay eggs on their own every 5 to 10 minutes, and thrown eggs hatch into chicks about one time in eight. That makes a chicken coop entirely self-sustaining and, with a hopper under a slab floor, fully automatic: eggs collect themselves, feathers and raw chicken drop into a chest. One arrow needs one feather, one flint and one stick, so an arrow supply is really a chicken supply. Beyond arrows, feathers craft the Brush for archaeology and the Book and Quill for writing, and they are one of the three things a fletcher villager will buy for emeralds. A stack of feathers in a chest is a stack of arrows waiting to happen, which is why the coop is usually the second farm a new base builds. A coop built on the first week quietly solves arrows for the entire world.

Crafting arrows, brushes and books and quills, and selling to fletcher villagers — with a chicken coop, an entirely renewable supply that needs no input at all.

Feather is a crafting material item in Minecraft 1.21.4. It stacks to 64. The usual source is Chicken and Parrot.

Its crafting uses are Arrow, Brush, and Book and Quill.

How to get it

Kill chickens for 0 to 2 feathers each, up to 5 with Looting III. Chickens lay 1 egg every 5 to 10 minutes and thrown eggs hatch a chick about 1 time in 8, so a coop grows itself.

Tips

Build the coop with a hopper under a slab floor and it collects eggs, feathers and meat automatically.
One feather, one flint and one stick makes 4 arrows, so a stack of feathers is 256 arrows.
Fletchers buy feathers for emeralds, which turns an overgrown chicken farm into a trading income.
Throw eggs at a wall to hatch chicks quickly when starting a coop from a single hen.