The Next Big Chicken? An Even Bigger One Is Underway In South GA

MARIETTA, GA — Everyone, or at least most everyone in Georgia, knows about Marietta's famous Big Chicken.

The metro Atlanta landmark stands 56 feet tall at Cobb Parkway and Roswell Road — and even moves its eyes and beak — signifying your arrival at the Kentucky Fried Chicken that's operated there since 1956, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It was built in 1963 with the intent to bring in customers — and it does just that.

Tourists from around the country and state come to Marietta for the Big Chicken, even for just for a photo-op, and locals use it to give directions (think: "If you see the Big Chicken, you've gone too far"). But soon it won't be the state's lone giant bird sculpture.

The city of Fitzgerald, Georgia is building a 62-feet-tall chicken-shaped topiary — meaning it will house live plants growing on its frame — rising 6 feet higher than Marietta's poultry icon, the Associated Press reported.

Fitzgerald Mayor Jim Puckett said it's slated for completion in eight to 10 weeks, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. The rural south Georgia city's chicken will also have rentable rooms inside for visits — and will be the world's largest topiary.

Puckett told the MDJ that his "first order of business" was to find out the height of the Big Chicken in Marietta, and make sure the Fitzgerald topiary was 2 feet taller. But Topiary Joe — the man building the new chicken, whose real name is Joe Kyte — said he wanted to go bigger.

“He says, ‘Mayor, we can do that, but the largest topiary in the world is 59-and-a-half feet and it’s in Dubai, so if we go to 62 feet, we’ll have that as well,’” Puckett told the MDJ. “So I said, ‘Well, let’s go big or go home.’”

Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin is good friends with Puckett. He told the MDJ he threw Puckett a challenge — to beat Marietta's Big Chicken — and they answered it. Tumlin said he's proud of Fitzgerald and amazed at Puckett's project.

"We had the distinction ... for 60 years, so we're willing to share," Tumlin told the MDJ.

Fitzgerald city officials first announced the chicken topiary project in 2019 as a new landmark to bring tourism to the city, which is home to about 9,500 people. The $290,000 topiary is taller than a Sauroposeidon — the world's largest dinosaur — and is paid for through a penny sales tax fund set aside for tourism projects, according to the AP.

“Our Big Chicken’s gonna keep an eye on I-75 as we send ‘em south to theirs,” Tumlin said to the MDJ. “If Puckett can make [his chicken’s] eyes roll and the beak move, then I’ll give him even more credit.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.