Neithard Horn, The Kaua'i Chicken

because they are part of our way of life. They belong to the island like the reef, the sunshine and the rain. They help to make the island to what it is just like WaiAleAle, Waimea canyon and Kalalau. Their crowing and cackeling and chirping and scratching is their Hula, their Prayer of Thanx to the Powers of Creation, expressing their joy of life, something humans tend to forget, being busy to earn money and to run the ever present Red Tape of modern society, so the roosters do it for them, and for that they should be respected.

The Legend tells:
The Tahitians brought the first chicken to the island, about 800 years ago. Those are the ones with the blue-grey legs and they are very dark, sometimes nearly black. They are the original island chicken, sometimes called jungle fowl.
Then the immigrating Europeans and Americans brought their chicken along, probably the Rhode Island type.
When the pineapple and sugar industry imported Japanese workers they brought along their ornamental chicken with a long history of selective breeding.
When the pineapple and sugar industry imported Philipino workers they also brought their chicken along. Those where bred for cock fighting.
When Hurrican Iniki hit Kaua'i in 1992 she overturned all the chicken coops and freed the American and the Japanese and the Philipino chicken, which they probably liked a lot, and since chicken are no racists they all interbred and mixed with the jungle fowl, producing what you can see and hear all day and all night long.
The overbred Japanese and Philipino chicken generally submitted under the more stable genes of the Tahitian and American chicken but sometimes they switch back to their own genes and when you take your time and look closely you'll see roosters with the vicious spurs of the Philipino fighting cocks, two inches long and needle sharp, mixed with Japanese ornamental chicken with the beautiful feathers, and the quite ordinary looking chicken of American and Tahitian ancestry.

To be continued ...