How to get rid of or capture chickens

[Higap]

Hello,

I have a problem with feral chickens and I’m trying to find ways to get rid of them. Capture with something I build and throw away? Capture and sell them? Capture with something I build and breed for eggs? I could probably catch 50 per day without really trying and if I did that for a few weeks I’m guessing I would make a dent in the population, but it’s tough to tell. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
That 'Dirty Jobs' episode is hilarious! It takes place in Miami as I recall.
It is sad that so many non-native species were released on the islands, and raise havoc with native critters. Maybe live traps, lots of live traps?
What are your local regulations? Start there, don't get in trouble doing whatever you decide.
Mary

 

[LizzzyJo]

Pics or it didn’t happen

 

[LateBirdFarms]

Where are you from that feral chickens are in such huge #s? just for curiosity sake... chickens are hard to come by around here this year..

 

[RobertaD1]

I saw a show once where this was the case in a Florida city. They had a special group of catchers who spent their day catching chickens and looking for their nests. No kidding! The city paid them to capture feral chickens. I believe it was the show Dirty Jobs. They used big nets to grab them. For the life of me I cant remember what they did with them. But maybe it's something you can google.

 

[centrarchid]

The removal of a feral population on the scale of even just Maui is not something for an individual to do. Efforts would be on the property of many people. The birds will not just keep coming to a feeding station as they have home ranges and territories that will restrict needed movements. I have been there, and numbers are not that high. Still, you will not be able to re-home that many birds. They will almost certainly have to be euthanized.

I would advocate for a limited hunting season with efforts advertised on way to prepare for consumption. As population size is reduced, they will become more wary and difficult to harvest.

 

[Higap]

Baiting them in with feed would be an easy way. What do I do with them after that tho? There are thousands and thousands of them.

 

[Higap]

I live in Maui, Hawaii.

 

[LateBirdFarms]

I could see how chickens might do extremely well there, and breed prolifically if they're free to do so.... is there maybe a rescue group that you could call in? If there as over populated as you say you might not be able to rehome them after catching them, catching and keeping them to harvest meat and eggs though.... that might be possible

 

[neo71665]

pellet gun