Feral Chickens - Hawai'i

[Slike]

Which Island, Hooligan?

 

[egglady]

Just goes to show you -- we spend all this time & money pampering & cossetting our chickens, making sure we have the right combination of feed, with clean bedding, desirable nest boxes, fresh water, all kinds of treats, and plenty of love . . . and here the wild chickens, which scrounge for themselves and nest under a bush look absolutely healthy and gorgeous. Go figure.

 

[hooligan]

Quote:
They lived in Honolulu.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Oh wow, I am SO moving there. (At least in my dreams...).

Those are some gorgeous roosters. I'd just sit on my deck and toss cracked corn at them all afternoon and listen to their happy clucking sounds... (Okay, so thoughts of Hawaii and chickens together have caused me to wax demented... hee hee).

 

[Lonomakana]

I like that you got a pic of that roo. My dad takes care of the plants down in Hanauma Bay and he can't help but take treats for the chickens as well.

Kaua'i has the most feral chickens as there are no mongoose there.

I've recently moved to the Big Island and though I see some feral chickens, I see even more wild turkeys and chukar.

 

[opihiman911]

Quote:
I live on the island of Kauai where we have a HUGE feral chicken population since Hurricaine Ininki in 1992. There was a feral population on island before that.
From what I understand the original feral chickens are Hawaiian jungle fowl, called moa, that were brought over by canoe with the original Hawaiian settlers. Most of these birds live up in the mountains and jungle area. They look like a regular roo with an orange neck with black iridescent body and tail.
The one you see cruising the streets are mostly escaped chickens after the hurricaine. Most of the chickens kept around here are used for cock fighting

and are mostly OEGB. There are some backyard egg raisers like me, but we make up a very small minority. These are the mulitcolored white, tan, black colorful chickens you see mostly in town.
Interestingly enough I asked a local historian one time how you can tell the difference between a feral chicken and an original Hawaiian jungle fowl. He told me that the Hawaiian jungle fowl rooster is one of the few roosters that will actually take care and raise baby chicks . He pointed one or two roos that were hanging around a hen and a dozen chick, when we approaced them the hen went off one way and the rooster stood its ground and defended the chicks, after the threat (us) were gone he went back to the chicks. We did this with another group of hens with a roo hanging around and the roo ran off and left the chicks to fend for themselves.
Does anyone know if this is true? Will any of your roos protect a clutch of chicks and actually help raise them? Since he mentioned that I do notice that certian roos with similar coloring do stick around the baby chicks helping the hens show them food and protect them, while other more colorful roos could care less and are just out for themselves.

Aloha,
Cory