What does it mean when animals have hearts over there heads?

What exactly does this mean? I had some seeds equipped and the chicken started following me. Why does it have hearts floating above it?

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2 Answers

Heart particles emit from mobs that are in "love mode" or are being tamed.

Heart particles emitted from a dog:

Animals that are "in love mode" emit hearts constantly and will path towards animals up to eight blocks away of the same species that are also in love mode.

You can send a mob into love mode by feeding it its specific food item. Each mobs food item can be seen in this table (click to enlarge):

In your case you have sent you chicken into "love mode" with seeds.

I recommend you read Breeding Mechanics on the Minecraft wiki for more in-depth information.

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This is an indication the animal is ready to breed. If another chicken (for example) is nearby, and you feed them seeds, they will breed and create a baby chicken.

Once two animals have bred you won't be able to breed them again for another 5 minutes.