30,000 birds scratching a living in the wild.

Experts believe the numbers are "totally'' out of control and farmers have called for a radical culling programme before their livelihoods are eaten away.

One suggestion involves trapping the birds, killing them and incinerating their carcasses -- while still leaving a more manageable population of the hens.

And others believe the feeding of stray cats by "do-gooders'' has left them with no urge to hunt -- taking away a past predator of the poultry population.

Farmer Roland Hill said he had lost standing crops to chickens Island-wide and he estimates that tens of thousands of dollars in produce has been pecked away.

In some areas the problem is made worse by residents who catch chickens, then drive to another Parish to dump their unwanted neighbours.

They have become so widespread that Mr. Hill said a cocky hen even greeted him when he disembarked a plane at the airport recently.

And is it understood some unwitting tourists found their lunch had become chickenfeed, when they returned from a ramble at Spittal Pond to find the birds pecking away.

"In the last two weeks 400 have been dumped on South Shore,'' he said. "I am losing money and all the farmers I have talked to say they are a problem.

"Ten years ago it was a problem and still nothing has been done about it.'' Mr. Hill, who farms at several locations across the Island, said a major trapping programme coupled with extermination could make significant inroads on the numbers.

"Two years ago they shot some of the crows, bringing their numbers down from 1,500 to 200,'' he said. "Then they let the numbers build up again. You don't want to wipe them out completely.'' But he warned that any culling may run into opposition from some sections of the general public, who "like to see chickens running around the country''.

He added that the feeding programme for feral cats organised by cat lovers had merely encouraged more breeding. And he said it had also created a new food source for the hens who had been seen pecking at food alongside cats.

It is thought the chickens carry disease which can be transmitted, at the very least, to domestic fowl. And their roadside diet means their meat is unattractive to even the most iron-clad stomach.

See Editorial: Page 4