Left: The feral chickens are interesting to see for the first time, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly, trust me. Where did all of these chickens come from exactly to a small key surrounded by water? It’s not a simple case of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Locals call them gypsy chickens, but wildlife experts believe that they are descended from a native fowl of Cuba known as a red junglefowl. Early settlers to Key West brought chickens in the 1820’s and raised them as domestic chickens for food. In the 1860’s, when a large population of settlers arrived from Cuba they brought their own customs and traditions, including cockfighting. They also brought red junglefowl from Cuba for the fights. Florida banned cockfighting in 1986, but by then, most people were buying their meat and eggs from grocery stores and fewer domestic chickens were being raised.

Right: . With egg-laying hens and fighting roosters roaming free on a pretty much predator-free island, the story of the birds and the bees took over, more than I will go into here. You don’t have to look far to find them, they walk down the middle of the street, into shops, and restaurants. They are especially famous at Blue Heaven where they freely roam the gardens along with many stray cats. As I said, originally, they are unique the first time you see them, but imagine living with a loud, and I mean LOUD alarm clock that goes off at all hours of the day and night and where the world might be your oyster, but it is the chicken’s porta potty. Sounds like a hefty fine coming, right, alas, no, the chickens are protected by law and it is illegal to kill or harm them. The only predator they have, besides cars, is when the red-shouldered hawks migrate through the island, but that would need to resemble Hictchcock’s “The Birds” and even, then, would probably hardly make a dent. The city has passed laws forbidding the feeding of chickens and if tourists are caught feeding them now, they can be fined; however, if chickens peck tourists or “deposit” on them, birds of a feather stick together.