Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? 🐔Answer: Perhaps to get to Lakeland.

While there’s no doubt our regal lake-front birds are celebrated with love + admiration, another group of local avians are worthy of garnering a little more attention.
Let’s bawk + rollToday we’re talking chickens. More specifically, we’re talking about the wild chickens that call Polk County home.

According to our friends at All Creatures Wildlife Control, while Ybor City is still most well-known for its large Central Florida population, there are currently around 300 chickens that roam throughout different areas of Polk County + Lakeland.

The broodiest bunchThe largest broods tend to hang out in these locations: West of the RP Funding Center, near the old Lakeland Police Station, by the old Winn Dixie location near Wabash, and on the east side of Crystal Lake.

Map of heavy chicken broods in Lakeland, Fla. | Photo by @thelaltoday

Though no one is entirely sure how they arrived in town, here are a few rumors:

They were originally brought from Haiti or Cuba.
Farmers or pet owners have given them a little too much free-range, resulting in an easy escape. (Can someone say ‘Chicken Run?’)
They’re descendants of Key West that have slowly migrated.

A male’s nature

No matter their exact origin story, over time they have conquered the county (and region) through breeding – as it’s in a rooster’s nature to mate + reproduce as often as they can.

What does the fox say?Raccoons, foxes + opossums are only a few of the fowl predators broods have to face in Lakeland, making it that much easier to overpopulate in the area.

A cockerel conundrumAccording to the Polk County Agricultural Department, there are no current county-wide plans to control or help maintain the population. Though wild chickens are a great resource to our environment (eating bugs, producing fertilizer + feeding a variety of fauna), when chickens overpopulate in urban areas, they are at greater risk of getting hit by vehicles + facing other dangers.

Don’t be a chickenAdopt or learn more about them instead. No matter what your good-natured rescue efforts are, don’t feed them. They can become dependent in one area very quickly + are able to find food by themselves. Shoutout to all the independent chickens that “don’t need no” human.

Quiz

Find the answer in today's newsletter.

– LALtoday team (Jessica + Kaylee)