It's eggactly high noon, and the chickens Zicke and Zacke have started a feather-trimming duel. Starting rump to rump, they flutter in opposite directions, but since they're running around the chicken yard in a circle, they will meet soon enough with loud clucking. Whoever manages to jump over the other adorns herself with a new tail feather — but the more the young chickens puff up their feathers, the slower they strut around. And the worms, who are skillful enough to flee time and again, also make for lots of stops during the race.

In the end, only the chicken that pays attention to closing her memory gaps will fill her rump with feathers and win by a beak.

In Zicke & Zacke: Ran an die Federn, thirteen face-up tiles lay in a circle around 13 face-down "yard tiles" that have the same pictures on them. Two players (or two teams) take turns moving the two chickens; each chicken needs to move to the space where a worm awaits, the worm being as many spaces ahead as the number of feathers not on the chicken. The player reveals a yard tile, and if it matches the space where his chicken's worm stands, he moves to that tile, then advances the worm the appropriate number of spaces, then tries to reveal that tile; if he reveals the wrong yard tile, his turn ends. If he manages to jump over the other chicken on his turn, his chicken gains a feather, but each feather slows a chicken down, making it harder to zoom around the chicken yard.

The player or team whose chicken gains four feathers first wins.