Free chicken SVG files

Thin legs, pointed feathers and how to cut them

Every file is 100 mm on its longer side. A chicken has two things that test a cutting machine: legs and toes about 3 mm wide, and feathers that end in points. In vinyl, weed towards the tips of the feathers and press the toes down last. In card, the legs are fine at full size and down to about 60 mm. In 3 mm plywood or acrylic, cut a standing bird at 150 mm or taller, or pick the hen on a nest, the face or the chicken butt, which have no long thin legs.

The rooster is the showpiece: his tail has four separate sickle feathers that taper to about 3 mm. Cut him at 100 mm or more and he makes a kitchen sign on his own. The crowing rooster has an open beak, which leaves two fine points; on a laser, lower the power for that corner or it will char.

Chicken wire as a background

The chicken wire file is a net of hexagons with lines 2 mm wide inside a square frame, all in one piece. Cut it from kraft card as a backing layer behind a hen, or use it as a stencil and sponge paint through it for a coop sign. To cover a larger area, cut several squares and butt the frames together, or delete the frame in your software and overlap the mesh.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions