A successful programme to halt numbers of feral cats has created an unexpected knock-on effect - a feral chicken baby boom.

After worries over the amount of feral cats roaming the Island, the Government encouraged a project which saw thousands of the animals trapped, neutered and released back into certain areas.

Unfortunately the subsequent decrease in the feline population -- whose staple diet were chicks -- left no check on the breeding of chickens and now they are becoming a real problem.

The news comes just weeks after The Royal Gazette revealed that farmers were calling for action after many said they were losing thousands of dollars to chickens and ducks.

A private sector bid to reduce the population has had some minimal success - but the 3,000 to 4,000 trapped so far has only made a small dent on the big picture.

The chickens, which are widespread throughout the Island, can decimate crops with ease. They also carry disease which can be passed to domestic poultry and there is the added problem of noise nuisance from cockerels.

But now Environment Minister Irving Pearman hopes that more private companies will take up the initiative to halt the march of the chicken army.

He admitted it was an issue that needed to be addressed, and he would have liked to have included funds in the recent Budget, but it wasn't possible.

"There are a group of people who have set themselves up to catch feral chickens, what I suggest to the farming community is that they use their services.'' He said the Ministry could help by supplying traps to be used where chickens are a nuisance.

Kevin Monkman, Assistant Director of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, said there was scope for additional legislation along the lines of the laws which controlled dogs and cats, for chickens.

At present the chickens are outside the law, except for those hens that belong to residents and stray onto the highway.

"We certainly get enough complaints about it and there is concern in the community about feral chickens,'' he said.

He said the preferred option was to encourage people to use the private sector when they had a particular problem on their own property, but that did not address the issue when chickens are found on public spaces.

There was also a warning for people who may see the chickens and their eggs as a free food source. Their eggs are usually fertilised and the meat is said to be tough and lacking in flavour -- due to their roadside and waste ground diet.