Who do I call to collect all of the wild chickens in my neighbourhood?!
Auntie’s answer: Please excuse me for assuming here, but I am going out on a limb to suggest that you might be a relative newcomer to these fair islands. If I am correct, you would not be the first person to move here and be struck by the number of chickens wandering aimlessly about everywhere, from someone’s yard to the car parks of any and all office buildings.
Most likely, you would also be wondering why the heck government doesn’t simply take care of this annoying copious chicken population. While we are on the subject, you have no doubt noticed a similar situation with that other scourge – the green iguana.
Well, while I cannot say how many wild fowl live here (though the iguana population is pegged at around half a million), there are clearly way too many pecking around. And they are not really the responsibility of any particular government department, as far as I am aware. Note, however, that the iguana situation is being addressed by the recruitment of cullers (see Cullers bring in 14,400 green iguanas), but I believe it would be a lot harder to chase down the chickens.
You will see some of the hens cut down as they stereotypically attempt to cross the road, but that is pretty much it.
They are basically a fact of life here, I’m afraid, and so my only real advice is to learn to ignore them as most people do. Though, admittedly, they can still manage to annoy me when the roosters decide that 3 in the morning is a fine time to crow in my yard.
I suppose you could also scoop up any recently deceased chicken you find (or “take care of” the creature yourself) and bring it home for dinner. I personally cannot vouch for the flavour of these birds, having never consumed one – at least knowingly – myself, though I have been led to understand they are tasty, but quite tough, so need to be stewed for a long time.
Ignorant to put that bull…t on your neighbors.
The Department of Agriculture will bring traps to any property if asked by the homeowner or renter. You just need to call and ask them. The last time they brought traps to our house, they collected over a dozen chickens in a few days.
These traps are humane and just catch the chickens in a cage alive and unhurt, by the way.
Our family just returned from Grand Cayman and we loved ALL of it! Green iguanas, Blue iguanas, hens, chucks and roosters! Love the people too! It’s all wonderful the way it is. Traffic needs to slow down and not kill so many living things!
I so much agree with you it’s the nature and wildlife that we love about Cayman Islands. When I come to camana bay I feel like in Florida again… sad
Get a dog.
Make a chicken trap, trap them, humanely kill and eat them. Nothing wrong with the feral chicken meat. Older roosters are tough and either have to be stewed, pressure cooked, or made into a soup. All the rest can be eaten in the same ways as store-bought chicken. Faster and easier to skin them, but they can be plucked if you like skin. Excellent flavor, and they don’t have any antibiotics or growth hormones. Just think of them as mobile MREs.
Personally, I prefer the chickens over the people. I don’t know why people have to kill everything. Animals were here first not vice-versa. Other suggestion, kill them and pressure cook them. Problem solved. One day you’ll wish they were still around.
????
Lol probably someone that not living here… are lucky with his yard.
My yard is full of them and I live here. I prefer them over my neighbors who piss in their yard, make noise with souped up cars and loud music, cursing and arguing all day, etc
Just snare and eat Tugz!
Dept of agriculture will pick them up for you and there are ppl on island that do this as a business to get rid of chickens and iguanas.
The chicken roaming freely on this Island is the Caymanian way of life, so now please accept it and leave our chicken alone…. next it will be us the Caymanian that they would want to know who call to get rid of us.
Please just accept us and let live in harmony on the small rock
Kmanlady
Caymanian way of life since Ivan, maybe. Not exactly a cornerstone of Cayman culture.
I will forgive you for your ignorance on this one D. The wild chicken population has been here since long before Ivan. Most families used to have chickens for their household and then when supermarkets started having a consistent supply those birds were let go and became feral. When I was a boy there many wild dogs, and they kept the bird’s population in check. Nowadays stray dogs are rounded up and the chicken’s predator is gone. Those who were the pioneers of the Cayman Islands always had chickens on their homestead, and it most certainly is a cornerstone of our culture. You and others may wish to say that we have no culture, that we have no heritage and that those whose roots which extend back many generations have no right to that heritage. Those who say such things are wrong, and they have exposed themselves for the bad minded people which they most certainly are. If you don’t like wild chickens, go live in New York and deal with the hood rats if that is more to one’s liking. For those who want to remove them from their yard, trying soaking cracked corn in whiskey and feed it to them. They are said to pass out drunk and are then easy to pick up and annoy some other expatriate down the road. The enzyme in green paw paw (papaya for the uninitiated) is a good addition to a stew of wild fowl as it is the basis of commercial meat tenderizer. Thing is though, as dirty and polluted as Cayman has now become, I would not eat a chicken off of the road. At least not until a long period of being fed good food and clean water with vinegar. The territorial call of the rooster goes from one side of the island to the other end and back again. It is their way of saying I am still here, I am not dead yet, this is still my house and watch your step.
its ironic that the roosters way of saying “im not dead yet” makes me want to commit rooster genocide
Expatriates made the Island what it is. You didn’t even have running water or electricity in the 60’s.
You are no lady.
Get rid of that chip on your shoulder. The birds can be annoying at 4am simply a fact.
I like the chickens. Nothing wrong with nature being noisy. Parrots are too but you shoot so many they try to stay away.
Dem chickens is organized! (Chicken run)
The population went nuts after Ivan. They are winged rats.
Just think about the poo you track into your house when you don’t leave your shoes by the door.
It was rat poo that caused the Plague..
The bubonic plague is spread by fleas, commonly found on rats but also dogs, cats, humans, bales of cloth etc. Nothing to do with the poo.
Thank you for curing the above individual of their ignorance on the matter. Methinks they would have one of the ones sticking leaches on each other.
I’ll come and get rid for you. $25.00 per rooster and $5.00 per hen.
How do I contact you to get rid of some chickens.
those chickens have regular homes you just dont see or know about chickens
was that in English?