Calvin Hylton holds the four-legged chicken for THE STAR. - Noel Thompson


WESTERN BUREAU

A four-legged chicken has sparked some amount of debate among residents and even children in the usually quiet district of Catadupa in rural St James.

In the last few weeks, eyebrows have been raised in the predominantly farming community after the discovery of the chicken. Majority of persons claim that this could be a 'sign of the times', the evidence of the upcoming end of the world.

The hen has two normal legs on which it moves around in addition to two others protruding from its sides. The chicken was bought by the Catadupa Primary and Junior High School from a farm store in downtown Montego Bay seven weeks ago, as part of its revolving chicken-rearing project.

The school's vice-principal and agriculture teacher, Junior Scarlett, said: "We have a school-feeding programme going on for the past five years and we normally purchase batches of chicken for the school. It was during the recent rainy season that we had purchased a batch of 150 when we discovered that there was something particularly different about this chicken."

Scarlett said he first thought the chicken had three legs, but he and Calvin Hylton, a groundsman employed to the school, soon learnt that it was indeed four legs, so they took it from the coop and showed the rest of the staff. "To be honest, we were really surprised to see a chicken like this because normally we would have seen chickens with twisted feet, but this one was sort of different. We decided to raise it and see what would happen," said Scarlett.

He said, of the 150 chickens, the deformed one was the most lively. "As you can see, it is a healthy chicken," he said. "We are not sure what we will do with it as yet. Some persons are thinking of feeding it until Christmas but not many persons would agree to eat it, certainly not me," he said with a chuckle.

Scarlett said he was not frightened, as knowing how chickens are hatched, he realised that the possibility existed that strange things can happen. "It is more artificial than natural," he said.

Part of Hylton's daily chores is to care for the chicken and he says he treats the deformed bird equally. "Is a nice 'likkle' hen, weigh about four pounds, but I won't eat it. I'll wait on nature to take its course," said Hylton.