Since you like chickens, you’d love the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Chickens are everywhere. Tourists like to lure them with treats to get close-up photos. Local residents like having the chickens gobble up the island’s numerous native venomous centipedes. But some people complain that feral chickens are a nuisance.
Nuisance Chickens
The feral chickens of Kauai and other Hawaiian islands can appear anywhere — on the beach, on hiking trails, on golf courses, in school yards. When they’re on the road, they’re blamed for traffic jams. Gardeners and farmers blame them for scratching up crops.
Some people are even terrified of the chickens. However, while chickens remain somewhat welcome on Kauai, they also appear on other islands that are less happy to have them.
People blast air horns to scare them away. Some people trap them, but then must find a way to dispose of them, since releasing chickens elsewhere is illegal.
Still others keep dogs or cats, as Hawaii has few natural poultry predators. But the efforts of humans, dogs, and cats are not enough to control the chickens. So the poultry population just keeps growing.
How Feral Chickens Got There
Polynesian voyagers first arrived in Hawaii about 1,000 years ago, bringing with them wild red jungle fowl, the origin of all modern chickens. In 1778, Captain Cook’s crew visited the islands and introduced domestic chickens, which cross-bred with the jungle fowl.
Even more chickens arrived during Hawaii’s plantation era, starting in the mid 1800s. Economic forces gradually caused many of the sugar and pineapple plantations to shut down, and chickens were left to roam free to breed with the wild jungle fowl.
Further increasing the population of feral chickens, in 1982 hurricane Iwa blew down chicken coops, releasing more domestic chickens into the jungle. And then in 1992, hurricane Iniki similarly increased the feral chicken population.
Much like to red jungle fowl in appearance, the feral chickens are small in size and particularly hardy. But since they’re too tough to eat, people don’t bother hunting them except for extermination.
New Chicken Law
In July of 2024 Hawaii passed Senate Bill 2401 aimed at controlling the state’s feral chickens. Under this state law, counties and the state match funds for control programs. Additionally, the law calls for public education focused on not making the problem worse by feeding the chickens.
The bill’s legislative finding states, in part, “Feral chickens and roosters wander into yards and gardens, digging up plants, damaging food crops and jeopardizing native plants and resources. Feral roosters crow at all times of the day and night, which has led to numerous noise complaints by residents throughout the state, and droppings from feral chickens are unsanitary and create a health concern.”
A private pest control company is now under contract with the city of Honolulu to help property owners trap and dispose of feral chickens. A full service for one week costs $475, with the landowner paying $375 and city $100.
However, not everyone is on board with the plan to eliminate Hawaii’s feral chickens. Says evolutionary ecologist Eben Gering, “Before deciding how important it is conserve them, manage them, or cull them, it would be good to at least know about their impact.”
Meanwhile, many tourists and locals consider Kauai’s feral chickens to be more of a novelty than a nuisance. The chickens therefore remain an important part of Kauai culture.
And that’s today’s news from the Cackle Coop.
Gail Damerow has written several books about keeping poultry, many of them available from the Cackle Bookstore.
