The Hollywood Freeway chickens are a colony of feral chickens that live under the Vineland Avenue off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles. It’s not known for sure just how they wound up there, though some news stories have said they are remnants of an overturned poultry truck. They arrived sometime around 1970, and by 1976 there were 50 of the chickens, described as Rhode Island Reds. They became known as “Minnie’s chickens,” named after Minnie Blumfield, an elderly retiree who fed them regularly. When she became too frail to feed them, actress Jodie Mann of Actors and Other Animals made arrangements to relocate the chickens. Nearly 100 of the hens and roosters were relocated to a ranch in Simi Valley, but not every member of the flock was apprehended. Those that remained spawned a new population. The first colony at the Vineland ramp has spread and there’s now a second colony at the Burbank off-ramp two miles away.
