Chickens Everywhere - St Thomas

Cheese 'n bread, Ms411, I thought you lived here and had adapted to the idiosyncrasies of day to day life but, over this holiday season, you've been coming up with negative after negative.

Yes, there are feral chickens running rampant in many different locations on all the islands and the issue has been addressed many, many times.

Goat-dem too has been addressed.

What's really bothering you? Sure as heck isn't chickens and goats.

I want to know if it's an issue on other islands. I know what's happening on St Thomas, and within the last week I've seen even more crazy chicken activity.

Geez, I post a real St Thomas experience and I'm negative. Tourists like the chickens so try to use them to a tourism advantage is all I'm saying.

And again, this is a relocation forum. If you don't want to hear chickens in the early morn, it's something you need to consider when looking for a home.

As a tourist, I was most impressed with donkey-dem. With regards to ms411's idea about attracting tourism, I'd suggest a couple of wild, free roaming zebras and giraffes. Maybe even a few elephants.

Key West has marketed their chicken population as a tourist attraction with much success. So maybe a Crucian chicken ad campaign?

St. John also has the same problem, in and around Cruz Bay.

Something to remember is that where there's chickens, roosters will soon follow. While our visitors may think they're charming to see, they don't truly appreciate the incessant crowing when it begins at 3AM and continues for hours, thereafter. Many a vacation rental owner gets these complaints and as a consequence, can lose their guests as they wish a more quiet location.

My cousin just had a problem with feral chickens and roosters in his neighborhood. I gave him the name of a guy that traps and removes them.

I bought my own trap a few years ago when I was inundated.
I finally got the STT Ag Station to accept them (after throwing a hissy fit and contacting the Ag. Vet, Senators and the then Governor when they wouldn't accept a rooster I'd trapped.) but I usually hand them off to a farmer that has a no escape pen. In one year, I trapped over 30 hens and chicks and 9 roosters. A bit much.

Personally, I like sleeping thru the night without the "energizer" rooster crowing every 8 seconds, for hours on end.
They're a nuisance.

Quiet reigns for in my location for quite some time now but the trap is always at the ready and money for it was well spent, IMO.

Geez, I post a real St Thomas experience and I'm negative. Tourists like the chickens so try to use them to a tourism advantage is all I'm saying.

A "real STT experience" which you've lived with for donkey's years but all of a sudden make a negative production about? And where on earth do you get that "tourists like the chickens"?

Key West has marketed their chicken population as a tourist attraction with much success. So maybe a Crucian chicken ad campaign?

Thank you for posting how other locations are using chickens to their benefit! Wish the VI would do something similar since chickens don't have to be paid. 🙂 VI should promote land and sea wildlife including chickens, donkeys, and goats.

Key West has marketed their chicken population as a tourist attraction with much success. So maybe a Crucian chicken ad campaign?

Thank you for posting how other locations are using chickens to their benefit! Wish the VI would do something similar since chickens don't have to be paid. 🙂 VI should promote land and sea wildlife including chickens, donkeys, and goats.

Go for it, girl! Hurry on down to Ms Doty's office and present your pitch! Never mind stating your opinion on a forum - just go for it and put those plans into ACTION! I'll definitely be one who'll follow your cause with interest.

And I'll definitely be one of those opposing it.
They're a darned nuisance and it's a good thing we don't have bird flu in the VI. Yet.

Ms411, your post was not negative- it was hilarious!! So true about tourists-seeing free roaming animals is a real novelty to city-dwellers.

I was pretty excited when I had a few chickens cross the road in front of my jeep when I visited. The only thing that we see up here, are the deer and they kinda hurt a vehicle when it's all said and done. Viva La Chickens!

I was in town today heading to post office to mail some local fruit tarts. They were in a bakery box so it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out I had something to eat. Someone I know was sitting in front of post office and asked for some for the chickens. I told him no because they were Christmas gifts for Statesiders. He begged me and offered to pay. I offered to buy him something else, but he insisted. I finally sold him one of the tarts that it took me weeks to find because I didn't want to keep arguing with him when so many tourists were passing, but I told him he could not feed that tart to the chickens and he said OK.

I go in to post office to box my remaining tarts for mailing and peak out and see him feeding tart to the chickens! I shouted out that I saw him. He admitted he ate 75% and gave chickens 25%.

I'll never speak to him again because he put those chickens above a human relationship.

And last week I was at another post office to check my mail and heard chickens squawking like crazy. Where are they and why are they making so much noise, I wondered. Then I noticed three boxes outside the door that were specifically for LIVE BIRDS because it was printed on the box. I took pictures.

I thought they were birds coming in to St Thomas but he was mailing them out (thank goodness!). I felt so sorry for the postal workers because the look on their faces was one of "Help me! This squawking is driving me crazy!" It was kind of funny, but I couldn't wait to get out of the post office to escape the noise!

Just posting real St Thomas stories.

From a woman who lives on a rock. 🙂

My theory is that alektorophobia (the fear of chickens) is caused by "genetic remembrance", a kind of "chemical de ja vu" which originates from the time when dinosaurs (i.e. the ancient chickens) were at the top of the food chain, and homo habilis (i.e. the ancient humans) were the prey. It ain't no fun to be eaten alive, and I speculate that this fear is still present in our DNA.

Now, I know that from the modern science perspective, the dinosaurs and people never coexisted, as dinosaurs were long dead from meteor strike (or was it global warming?), before homo habilis popped up. I happen to believe that this theory is wrong, and alektorophobia is the proof.

I've been in the post office and had someone mailing a rooster in a box. I couldn't believe it was allowed. No food, no water, rooster crowing to beat the band. Believe me, I'm not a fan of chickens and roosters but to me that was animal cruelty. That rooster was probably being mailed off to become another victim of cockfighting which is prevalent and still legal in the VI, unlike 50 U.S. states.

BTW - No one's afraid of chickens. Have another toke.

Ms411- you are blogging your woman in a rock stories after all! Funny about the chickens. Not as funny when they wake you up 🙂 we have them in Tampa too. The part of Tampa called ybor city, old Cuban cigar town. They wander all over. Key West as well and the tourists do love them there. Go figure.

I saw a family of baby chicks living in the bush along the sidewalk in downtown C'sted during jump-up earlier this year. Didn't seem to be phased at all by the party. There are 3-4 roosters that seem to be living at our condo grounds on STX, they make a little noise but haven't been too bothersome.

We have a lot of Canadian Geese in the area in NC. I think they used to migrate but now they are here all year long. They gather in groups of dozens or hundreds it seems. Today I had to stop the car in the road, a thoroughfare, and wait for dem geese to cross it, single file. And the ones that hadn't gone into the middle of the road waited for me to pass before proceeding to cross.

On St. John, we have chickens all over the place. As well as goats, sheep, donkey, deer, pigs, and cows. They all attract a lot of attention from the tourists. The only one I don't 'get' is the cows.... I don't understand why tourist like to stop in the middle of the road to take pictures of the cows. They are so common, and I would think that most people have seen cows in the states while driving down the road, so I don't understand why a VI cow is so much more interesting than the cow you see in the states.

I am one of the few I guess who like the chickens. Over the years I have had many many chickens who visit my yard. I have even raised a few from egg and have many others that I have tamed. Most notably, Snoopy. I could write a book about the experiences I had with that house chicken! She was something else! I could open my door and yell "SNOOPY" and where ever she was she would come running. She knew the sound of my car and when I got home she was always right there waiting for me. There are many others that I could talk about too.

I don't mind the crowing too much either. They are all talking to each other right now as I write. There IS one rooster in my yard right now that recently learned how to crow. He hasn't shut up since he learned, which is getting old. I have to go outside to have cell reception and he is a pain in the a$$ when I am trying to have a phone conversation. I always have the water hose near by to shoo him off.

The Cruz Bay chickens can be violent. I've seen hens rip apart baby chicks that aren't theirs. Its kind of disturbing. I often times have to warn tourists that you cannot approach a hen with baby chicks. They WILL attack. Well.... let me rephrase, I warn the tourists with children, the adults I let find out for themselves 😀

I don't understand why tourist like to stop in the middle of the road to take pictures of the cows. They are so common, and I would think that most people have seen cows in the states while driving down the road, so I don't understand why a VI cow is so much more interesting than the cow you see in the states.

Haha!! I think it's because stateside cows aren't usually wandering in the middle of a busy road - unless you live out west, where "open range" abounds. Add in that most STJ visitors come from east coast cities, where livestock are usually only seen in styrofoam packages at the supermarket.

The tourists stopping to take pictures of cows in the road are more of a hazard than the cows themselves. 😀

I think there are less chickens here on St. Croix. The economy has been so tough that most of them end up in the pot! 😎

It seems that unwanted chickens and roosters are being relocated from Chrisiansted to Crammer park on St. croix. Oahu had chickens them too. I rather have them loose than fighting.

It seems that unwanted chickens and roosters are being relocated from Chrisiansted to Crammer park on St. croix. Oahu had chickens them too. I rather have them loose than fighting.

Altona Lagoon area (STX) still has some very assertive chickens/roosters. I've done cleanups there, and they've let me know in no uncertain terms that my good intentions are not welcome. They mobilize like they've studied Patton. I give them a wide berth.

I love the chickens. They are comical and entertaining to watch. They remind me of little dinosaurs .
I hav e also seen peacocks at Altoona.

Here's a tip for trapping them.

I ordered a cat trap. I've rarely used it for stray cats tho.
I feed and will s/n the cats that come on property.
I feed them outside and when the chickens come, they will run feral cats off. Aggressively. They'll charge them, peck at them. I'm always amazed. They crap in front on my doorstep, on my driveway and on my truck!

Forget dry corn or veggies as an enticement in a trap for chickens and roosters. Use dry cat food.
I had one rooster stalk the trap for hours with dry food. Crowing all the while, mind you. So new tactic.....

For the ones that are leary of a trap, even with the dry...they can't resist the wet cat food.

If a hen gets trapped and all chicks don't, if you're patient you can entice same way to put in box and then reunite with hen in trap.

Or you can snag them, one after one, after much chasing around, using a spaghetti strainer and a dust pan. The chicks are fast and can hide, run and dart all over.

I've had experience and obviously not a fan.