Don’t feed chickens
This letter is in regards to the island chickens.
I don’t dislike chickens, I kept chickens for years. We had acreage and no one was bothered by them.
Fast forward 20 years living here on Kauai, had a new neighbor move in to subdivision right next door. At first seemed like a nice lady, we talked about being good neighbors, keep communication.
Then she started feeding the chickens, before you knew it we had six to seven roosters around the house crowing morning, noon and night.
Had a talk with her, explained how disruptive the noise was, nothing changed. Wrote a letter to her explaining how we were being tortured by the incessant crowing, she continued feeding them.
Now she is feeding them under her house thinking we don’t notice. So much for our friendly relationship.
My thought is if you live in rural area and crowing isn’t bothering anyone, fine.
But if you are annoying your neighbors with this activity, please show some “aloha” and do not encourage chickens to roost in your neighbors back yard.
Linda Bothe, Kalaheo
Since your neighbor is apparently new to the island they are unaware of the food chain.
1 What the chickens don’t eat, critters lower on the food chain will clean up the left overs.
2 Your neighbor is inviting rats to join in for the free food.
3 Or worst case, pigs join the party.
I also live in Kalaheo, on the makai side. Our neighborhood is free of chickens for the most part. No one feeds them and if one or two do wander in they’re chased out quickly. I do go up to the Kukuiolono golf course and park and take up a few scraps, as do others. It’s a good option if you have a hankering to feed them. There are always options. It’s unfortunate that our sometimes excessive need to nurture also leads to anti-social behavior.
Bird flu (Avian influenza) (H5N1) is rapidly spreading world-wide by migratory birds and has now infected mammals including bears causing blindness, minks (hundreds of thousands have been culled in Europe), foxes, raccoons (respiratory failure), dolfins, seals, sea lions (600 in Peru), humans (rarely but 56% fatality) and lastly all bird species.
The reason for the huge increase in egg prices is the hundreds of millions of laying hens, not to mention eating chickens, that have had to have been culled (killed) to save other bird farms. The bird flu is highly infectious (if one bird on a farm becomes infected the entire flock will die in a matter of days) and fatal for most bird species. It is spread via a birds feces and the consumption of infected birds by scavengers.
When infected migratory birds arrive on the Hawaiian Islands, the inevitable spread of H5N1 to the Islands chicken populations will be 100% fatal. The new strains of H5N1 can and will kill monk seals, dolfins, feral cats, pigs, most of the spectacular native bird species, and eventually humans. H5N1 in immunocompromized humans is nearly always fatal, and in healthy humans 56% fatality rates are seen. Bird flu so far is not spread by human to human contact. Avian influenza in humans will make the Covid19 pandemic look mild. There is a vaccine, but only few hunderd thousand doses at present.
In conclusion, do not feed the feral chickens! The stench from millions of dead chicken carcasses will overwhelm the senses….and devastate the native bird populations.