City spends $7,000 to trap 67 feral chickens

Honolulu has spent $7,000 catching 67 feral chickens in recent months.

Feral chickens, rampant across Oahu, are also a statewide nuisance. A bill to establish a five-year pilot program to manage the population of feral chickens by “humane and cost-effective methods,” including the use of a bird contraceptive, failed to advance at the Legislature this year, but the City and County of Honolulu initiated its own pilot program, Hawaii News Now reported.

At a City Council meeting earlier this week, officials said the Customer Services Department spent $104 per chicken trapped at five locations over the past two months.

That amount was less than half of the $220 per bird the city expected to spend. Vandalized, damaged and stolen traps add to the cost, officials said.

Department Director Kimberly Hashiro said officials want to get the cost down to $75 per chicken. She said officials are getting quotes from other vendors.

The city also has launched a social media campaign to discourage feeding the wild chickens.

Waimalu resident Angel Jackson said the chickens in her neighborhood squawk and crow at all hours.

But neighbor Zedrick Oda said he doesn’t mind them because the feral chickens remind him of the Big Island, where he’s from.