Chickens in Kauai

We’re finally back from a family vacation in Kauai (one of the Hawaiian islands).  This was our first time there and the climate, views and beaches were fantastic!  We pretty much tried to do it all…ziplines, geocaching in the interior and coastal areas, helicopter tours…the works.  We had a blast!

One interesting thing that we didn’t plan on were the chickens.  Living in lower Delaware (part of the DelMarVa chicken capital of the world), we’re no stranger to chickens…but we don’t usually see them running loose.  We saw them at the beaches, heard them going to town from 4:00-6:00am every morning, and played "chicken" with them as we drove around the island.  Since the condos around those parts are pretty much designed for a free-flow exchange of air all the time, with nothing but screens and adjustable slats between us and the outdoors, we were serenaded on a daily (morningly) basis.

The word from the locals is that when Hurricane Iniki slammed Kauai back in 1992, it released all of the chickens that the Polynesians and Europeans introduced as well as the Filipino fighting cocks that were caged in the islands interior.  They all started intermingling and voila – chicken central.

Other than the early morning awakenings, they were pretty innocuous.  Going about their business and not giving us much thought.  One nice benefit of having them around, though, is that they are a pesticide-free way to keep the insect populations under control.  We did a tour of the Steelgrass Chocolate Farms while we were there and they now see them as a positive influence for their efforts to introduce cacao trees on the island.  If you go to Kauai, definitely take the kids down for the chocolate tour.  You’ll get about an hour and a half of fascinating education on the various plants on the farm, get to taste about 10 different delicacies from sugar cane to exotic tropical fruits, and the finale is a demonstration on how cacao beans are transformed into chocolate and a taste testing of some of the worlds finest chocolates!  We had a bunch of kids with us and they all enjoyed the hike around the farm and the tasty treats.

Doug White