Zombie Chicken

Zombie Chicken is the fifteenth zombie encountered in the Wild West. It is released from a Chicken Wrangler Zombie after it has been damaged. They quickly rush toward the player's plants doing considerable amounts of damage. Lightning Reeds, Spikeweeds, Spikerocks and Ghost Peppers are the best and quickest way to deal with them.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Fragile

SPEED: Flighty

Once released onto the lawn chickens run full speed to peck at your brains.

Ba-qwack!

Overview
Zombie Chicken absorbs 0.25 normal damage shots. Because of its low health, it only degrades upon death.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Day 10, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, and Big Bad Butte

Dark Ages: Piñata Party

General
While Zombie Chickens are very weak individually, they have high strength in numbers and can easily overwhelm defenses without any area-of-effect plants. Using plants that can attack multiple zombies at once, such as the Bloomerang and the Lightning Reed will allow multiple Zombie Chickens to die with each attack. Snapdragons are fairly good because they can kill a very large group of chickens in several shots, since Zombie Chickens tend to be bunched together in a 3x4 area. Using a Cherry Bomb can also work, but it has to be planted far enough ahead that the Zombie Chickens do not run past it and are unaffected. Jalapenos can also be used to quickly deal with them, along with any other zombies in a lane. Alternatively, if area-of-effect plants are not available, using multiple fast plants like Pea Pod or Repeater can compensate for a lack of area-of-effect plants. Spikeweeds are good as well, as they can kill Zombie Chickens when they go past them. Bonk Choy punches fast making it a good plant to use as well. Since Melon-pult and Winter Melon have a splash effect, it can be a good to use them to kill them. Laser Beans and Tall-nuts together are proven to be very effective as Laser Beans damage all zombies in the lane and Tall-nuts block them to prevent them from eating the Laser Beans. The use of Tall-nuts prove to stall hundreds of them, but be sure to replace a lost one quick or they will cause trouble.

Moving a peashooting plant that has been fed Plant Food back and forth very fast on a minecart that covers all five rows is an easy way to get rid of a large crowd of Zombie Chickens, especially Threepeaters, Repeaters, and Peashooters. Split Peas can be used to get rid of chickens in the back if the minecart is in the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth column as well as damaging the zombies that are coming in as well. An exception to this tactic is the Pea Pod, as it will only fire five big peas that deal 20 normal damage shots, greatly overkilling any chickens that are hit.

Cabbage-pults and Kernel-pults are very bad choices (unless fed with Plant Food) against Zombie Chickens because they fire half as fast as a Peashooter and can only kill one Zombie Chicken at once. Other than that, Cabbage-pults and Kernel-pults themselves will end up hitting themselves, instead and the tendency to kill a horde of Zombie Chickens is at 15% only. In addition, Butter is ineffective to Zombie Chickens because the hit is enough to kill them. Torchwoods are also useless, as they do not do splash damage and kill one at a time. In addition, Plant Food Torchwoods are also useless. Citrons (unless fed with Plant Food) are worse than Cabbage-pults, Kernel-pults, and Torchwoods in dealing with Zombie Chickens, because Citrons shoot much slower than any other plant and there is no splash to kill multiple Zombie Chickens at once. Also, try not to use plants like Chili Bean, Sun Bean, Spring Bean, or Iceberg Lettuce (unless fed with Plant Food), since only one Zombie Chicken gets affected.

Hypnotizing Zombie Chickens also counts as a good idea. Not only it prevents Hypno-shroom from being consumed after a peck, but also allow themselves to serve a distraction to other zombies and saves you sun for your future disposals.

Wild West - Day 22

 * See also: Locked and Loaded and Wild West - Day 22

Build two columns of Repeaters against them before the first wave or you will die automatically before you can even tap the Plant food button. Do not use Bloomerangs, as they only deal with three zombies at once and there are obviously more than three chickens per lane. However, they can help deal with other zombies that appear in the level.

Wild West - Day 20

 * See also: Not OK Corral and Wild West - Day 20

A Chicken Wrangler Zombie will appear in the middle lane in the final wave. Arrange the Coconut Cannon and a Peashooter in its lane and place all your other Peashooters in the lane above and below, Then when the wave starts, use the Coconut Cannon to kill the Chicken Wrangler Zombie, and your Peashooters will take care of the chickens. Lastly, kill the remaining zombies.

Trivia

 * It is the fastest zombie out of all the zombies in the Plants vs. Zombies series, as it can move exactly two spaces in one second. It is also the weakest zombie with one quarter of a health point.
 * This shows that in just 4.5 seconds it can get to the Player's House.
 * The Rocket Zombie, Dolphin Rider Zombie (while still on its dolphin) and Pharaoh Zombie (when its Sarcophagus is removed) move approximately one space every second.
 * This is currently the only zombie that has the "Fragile" toughness.
 * When it dies, its feathers appear. The same happens with Zombie Parrot.
 * This does not occur in the Chinese version.
 * On iOS devices and some Android platforms, if defeated with a Lightning Reed, Zombie Chickens turn into buckets of fried chicken.
 * This also is achievement Fried Chicken's icon.
 * Zombie Chicken and the Wild West Gargantuar have the shortest almanac entry of all zombies.
 * If a Chicken Wrangler Zombie is frozen or buttered, its Zombie Chickens will not be released.
 * As much as thirteen of these can be released from a single Chicken Wrangler Zombie.
 * So far, the Zombie Chicken and Zombie Parrot are the only biological animals in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. The rest are robots.
 * Coincidentally, both of them are birds and have "Flighty" speed. The other has the same speed is the Tiger Imp, who's costumed as an animal too.
 * When the Chicken Wrangler Zombie is killed by an instant-kill plant or a power-up, Zombie Chickens will still be released.
 * Also, when a Chicken Wrangler Zombie (with its chickens and bailing wire intact) gets killed by a Lawn Mower, some Zombie Chickens will be killed but most will survive and possibly losing the game.
 * It jumps every time it is moving, but it cannot be blown away by the Blover. The same with the Jester Zombie and the Bug Bot Imp.
 * There are Piñata Parties called Chicken Week mentioning this zombie.