Chicken Farm is a wall dive on the north coast named, like many Christmas Island sites, after a landmark on the cliff above – in this case a former poultry farm. The Tourism Association lists it among the island's featured sites, and Diveplanit and Divernet describe it as a vertical wall into the blue with beautiful hard corals and spectacularly large gorgonian fans below 33 m.

The profile is classic Christmas Island. A narrow reef top of hard coral, plate and branching Acropora, gives way to a wall that drops vertically far beyond recreational limits. The upper wall, from about 5 m to 25 m, is covered in hard corals, with sponges, whips and small fans in the crevices and the island's colourful reef fish – butterflyfish, angelfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish, hawkfish – moving along the face. The signature feature is deeper: past about 33 m the wall carries very large gorgonian sea fans, some several metres across, which is why the site appeals to experienced and deep-certified divers and to wide-angle photographers.

Open water off the wall is where pelagics appear – schools of fusiliers and trevally, grey reef sharks, eagle rays and, in the wet season, the chance of a whale shark or manta. Because the best feature is deep, the dive needs planning: most groups make one short, controlled visit to the fans and spend the remainder of the dive shallower, with nitrox helping to stretch bottom time.

Chicken Farm suits advanced divers with deep experience who are comfortable on a bottomless wall with no visual reference below. Divers limited to 18–25 m still get a fine wall dive through the hard coral zone. Site-specific documentation beyond the operator summaries is limited.

Fly from Perth (about 4 hours, two to three flights a week, some via Cocos Islands) and hire a car – there is no public transport. Both dive centres are in The Settlement and launch their boats from the jetty/boat ramp at Flying Fish Cove, normally at about 8 am for a two-dive morning trip. From the cove the boat runs west from the cove past Smith Point and then south-west along the north coast along the coast for roughly 10 minutes to the site.

There is no land access to the dive, and the vertical sea cliffs mean no exit other than the boat. Operators choose sites on the morning according to swell and wind.

On the north coast, which is in the lee of the south-east trade winds from roughly April/May to November – that is the calm, reliable season here with glassy seas and 30 m+ visibility. From about December to March/April the north-west monsoon brings northerly and north-westerly swell (and occasional cyclone-generated swell) that can make the north coast undiveable and the Flying Fish Cove ramp unusable for days; Extra Divers treat February–April as peak swell season when trips are often cancelled. Any swell over about 1.5 m from the north-west quarter usually cancels the site.

Visibility dips after heavy rain run-off from the plateau and during red crab spawning (Oct–Jan) when plankton blooms. Tides are small (about 1 m) and rarely matter, but currents along the coast can pick up without warning.

Drop straight down the wall to look at the gorgonians below 33 m (deep-certified divers only, short time, nitrox for the rest of the dive), then begin a slow ascent along the wall through the hard-coral zone, finishing on the reef top at 5 m. Divers not certified deep stay at 18–25 m.

Deep specialty recommended for the gorgonians; nitrox (EAN28–32) useful for the shallower part of the profile.

Extra Divers Christmas Island and CI Wet'n'Dry Adventures – dived occasionally; the deep fans need a deep-certified group (Wet'n'Dry normally limits dives to 25 m).