The Chickens Of Ybor City

by Austin James on March 2, 2020

Work brought me to Ybor City the other day and, as usual, chickens were everywhere clucking away. So I decided to get some pictures for the blog.

The Ybor City chickens have been around for a long time, 100+ years, actually. The chickens are decedents of the chickens of the original Ybor City cigar worker population. They used to keep the chickens in their backyards as a food source…and to use for cockfighting.

This was the first chicken I captures by photo. It was struttin’ his (her?) stuff and scratching for food.

This guy gave me a warning when I got a little to close to take his picture.

This one was chillin’ but got a little nervous as I approached.

How many chickens do you see in this photo?

This was the Big Boss. When he showed up he nipped at the other chickens, chased another one off, and then started to mean mug me.

All the chickens I saw were outside the Sherriff’s office in Ybor City. Here is a look at the somber police memorial for all the fallen officers that served at the Hillsborough County Sherriff’s Office. It goes all the way back to the mid-to-late 1800s. Each plaque has a translucent photo of the officer, DOB and DOD, and the story of how they lost their life in the line of duty.

Across from the police memorial is the 9/11 memorial.

Specifically, this memorial is for World Trade Center Tower 2. The beam is from the tower.

And here is one of the famous Ybor City trolley cars. I love these things as they are actually cheap to ride and practical. You can get from Ybor City to Amelia Arena and everything in between.

If you want to make sure the chickens are well taken care of and stay in Ybor City for generations to come, you can actually join a club– The Ybor Chicken Society.

They do things like meet up on Sunday to scrub chicken poo off of buildings and to lead the chickens away from special events via a trail of food. The Ybor Chicken Society even captured and saved many of the chickens and their eggs from Hurricane Irma by storing them in a warehouse. The goal of the organization is to minimize the negative impact of the chickens to business owners so nobody complains and to make sure the chickens thrive.

Honestly, it’s working. I love those dang Ybor City chickens and everybody else I have met loves them too, including the Ybor City locals. Anyway, Tampa ordinance declares Tampa a bird haven, including the chickens, even though there was a time when the chickens were on the chopping block.

The Tampa City Counsel looked at changing the ordinance protecting the chickens in order to appease some people that don’t like fun, but in the end, the community overwhelmingly wanted the chickens to stay, so the counsel decided to leave the chickens alone.

The Chickens Of Ybor City

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