Teams removed almost 1,700 feral chickens from the island’s bird population in the past month in a drive to control their numbers, Rotarians heard this week.

Geoffrey Smith, the Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said that the figure could increase after it hired contractors to bolster the co-ordinated response to tackle the pests.

Meanwhile, he said that the DENR was working with partners to determine whether the highly pathogenic avian flu was present in Bermuda’s feral chicken population.

At a meeting of the Rotary Club of Hamilton, Dr Smith told attendees that 1,690 feral chickens were removed from the bird’s general population in the past 30 days, an increase over previous efforts.

He said that the DENR “doubled its resources” in April by hiring two additional contractors to manage the birds.

“I expect that the figure could go up to about 2,000 per month with the two additional contractors operating,” Dr Smith added at the lunch meeting on Tuesday.

The environmental scientist warned that one hen can hatch eggs to produce 180 chickens in a calendar year.

He added: “The geometric progression means that you may never get on top of it, so it is a challenge.”

Last December, Jaché Adams, the Minister of Public Works and Environment, said that while the DENR removes more than 1,300 feral chickens a month, the scale of the problem exceeded the department’s capacity.

The Government earlier invited residents to snare and report the presence of feral chickens after the announcement in the House of Assembly of a series of intervention measures.

Mr Adams told MPs that feral chickens had almost no natural predators in Bermuda, rapidly multiplied and were known to cause farmers “major crop losses”.

At the time, he said the problem was even more concerning because of the continued global circulation of avian flu.

Dr Smith said that the DENR was working with colleagues in the Cayman Islands and the Department of Health to determine whether the H5 avian flu was among Bermuda’s feral chicken population.

“Because that’s a worry, as obviously if it is in the chickens it could jump to humans, so this is something we need to look at,” he said.

The avian influenza, which is caused by the influenza A virus, is an infectious disease that primarily affects birds.

While transmission to humans can occur, such transmission requires close contact with infected birds.

Dr Smith said that in the latter part of 2025, the Cayman Islands recorded a case of the avian flu at a turkey farm, where all the birds were immediately culled.

It followed the discovery of a number of dead turkeys at the location.

“Then they had to go after the feral chickens in earnest so that is a concern,” Dr Smith added.